A Crack In The Mask
by Yaoi Hands
Summary: All it took was for one mistake to have Naruto in the arms of the Akatsuki. One in particular: Uchiha Itachi. Can his friends save him in time before he's completely broken? Like a crack in a mask. Slightly AU, Mpreg and Yaoi. [ItaNaru]
1. The Mask

**A**** Crack In The Mask**

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**Toki: What's up peeps!**

**Sasuke: What are you up to this time?**

**Toki: Oh nothing. :) So,**** I recently started reading stories about dark Naruto, and after listening to this song called 'Insanity', I'm in love with the idea of Naruto breaking! The idea of Naruto NOT taking ****any bull crap from anyone anymore and letting himself go is very interesting, so I wanted to try my own spin of a story with dark Naruto. PLUS ItaNaru is my 2nd favorite pairing of all time! *Insert high-pitched Fangirl squeal***

**Sasuke: You're going to bore your readers to death if you keep talking.**

**Toki: Yeah, yeah, whatever! Here Cha-**

**~Naruto~ Wait Toki!**

**Toki: What is it Naru-kun?**

**~Naruto~ You forgot your warnings and the disclaimer!**

**Toki: Oh right! **

**Warnings: ****Contains graphic scenes and images (Not for people with weak stomaches)S****light OOCness (Though I'm pretty keen on keeping everyone in character since I can't STAND when people put them out of it!)****Some Sakura bashing (I know, I love Sakura to death, but sometimes she has me wanting to go into the manga/anime and wanting to choke some damn sense into her XD) and of course YAOI, which means boyxboy love! If you can't handle it or dislike it, then you can simply press the back button. I want NO flames and I swear if I do get any, I will get my water hose and hose your ass down! Please respect that even though you may not like yaoi, other people, like myself, enjoy it! Thank you~**

**Disclaimer: If I owned ****Naruto...let's just say Naruto and Sasuke would have made love thousands of years ago instead of trying to kill each other all the damn time! ;)**

**Toki: And now here is Chapter 1 of my new fic, A Crack In The Mask!  
**

**Enjoy :)**

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**Chapter 1: The Mask**

"No need to fear any longer! Uzumaki Naruto is on the scene!" The blond male of seventeen years of age chirped, as he made his way to his other two teammates on the bridge in the middle of the village.

Sasuke fake scowled and resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his cocky teammate. About a year ago is when Sasuke had been brought back to the village. Naruto and Jiraiya, out of pure luck, found Orochimaru's true hide out and managed to save a broken and beaten Sasuke from the clutches of the devious snake sannin and his right hand man, Kabuto. When they entered the village, Sasuke's return was the main headlines that the people of Konoha talked and gossiped about for months. Tsunade almost put him in jail, for if it had not been for Naruto. Instead, she had put him on lockdown and house arrest for two months, then made him retake the chunnin exam once again, which he easily passed.

"No one cares moron." To anyone else, it would have seemed as if Sasuke could care less about Naruto's presence when the truth was, Sasuke was more than glad to see his best friend finally arrive.

Sakura, of course, blushed and wrapped her arms around one of Sasuke's. Since Sasuke's return, the bubblegum-haired kunoichi has not let the young Uchiha out of her sight and tended to follow him everywhere, day and night, like a lost and hopeless puppy dog. It was as if as soon as he returned, she turned back to her old ways as a gennin, which many people didn't like. Including Sasuke himself.

"Yeah Naruto, no one cares." Sakura stuck out her tongue, attaching herself to Sasuke even more. The dark-haired male glared at her, but did nothing more.

Naruto ignored Sakura's comment and fake pouted. "Hey! Don't call me a moron!" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blond boy and smirked.

"I only call them like I see them." Sasuke said smoothly as Naruto grinned.

"Oi, teme!" Sasuke grinned back and opened his mouth to retort back at the blond, but his number one fangirl beat him to it.

"Don't call Sasuke-kun that! If anything, your the asshole that no one likes,_ demon_." She spat out that last word with pure venom. Sasuke glared at the pink-haired girl who had a triumphant smile on her face as she watched all of Naruto's cockiness and confidence fade away slowly.

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto's fists unconsciously tightened as he tried his best not to let his emotions show. That comment really hit him hard in the chest. He closed his eyes, putting on one of his fake smiles.

Kakashi suddenly appeared with his usual 'yo' and waved at his team before noticing the tension and killer vibes in the air. He first looked over at Sasuke who looked like he was about to murder Sakura, sparks of lightning coming from the arm that didn't have an obsessive fangirl attached to it. He then shifted his one-eyed gaze over towards Naruto who obviously had a fake smile on his face. His fists were clenched. Droplets of blood dripping from them and onto the bridge below him, staining bits of the cream-colored bridge with tiny droplets of crimson red.

He coughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to say that I have nothing for you guys today, so you're free to do as you please." He finished with his crooked eye smile. He gave Sasuke a quick look before disappearing. Slight tension leaving the air, Naruto elbowed Sasuke, who in return glared at him.

"Are you serious!? Did he really call us here just to tell us we have nothing planned to do today!?" Sakura started to vent, which gave the young Uchiha the advantage as he slipped his arm from her grasp.

"It's nothing new." Naruto shrugged.

"I swear, he's always doing this! Skipping out on us just so he can go and make kissy face with Iruka-sensei." It had been no surprise to both boys that Sakura had a little secret crush on Kakashi, although her heart would always remain towards the young Uchiha. Rumor's of Kakashi having a secret lover had been spreading around recently. Umino Iruka just happened to be the number one suspect.

"Oi dobe." Sasuke called as Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"Nani?"

"Up for a fight later? I wanna try out this new move and see if it's any good." Naruto grinned and quickly nodded his head.

"I'm down, Sasuke-teme!"

"Hmph." Sasuke gave a slight grin before putting his hands in his pockets and walking away. Sakura panicked and grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. He slowly turned around and glared at her.

"What do _you_ want?" Sakura inwardly flinched by the harshness in his voice, but quickly shook it off and batted her eyelashes, giving him a sweet smile.

"May I join you, Sasuke-kun? I would like to see your new move as well."

"No. Don't even attempt to follow me today either, I'm not in the mood." He said coldly, before vanishing into thin air.

Sakura 's whole demeanor changed. She stood there and held herself, trying to be strong when she felt a sudden prick in her eyes. Naruto almost felt sorry for the girl. Almost. He walked up to her and slowly put a hand on the saddened girl's shoulder.

"You know Sakura-chan, if you want we can-" Naruto was cut off when he felt a burning sensation on his cheek. He slowly lifted his hand up to the reddened area and glared at the pink-haired female before him.

"You little bitch, you always ruin everything! I don't understand why Sasuke-kun would waste his time on a pathetic being like you! You're nothing but a piece of garbage that needs to be thrown away. Go kill yourself you demon!" She spat out angrily before running away in tears.

Naruto merely held his cheek and stared at the place that the kunoichi of his team he was infatuated with, once was. At that moment, he felt himself begin to boil and all he wanted to do was tear off the skin that had been marked by her. He felt his nails dig into his skin hard; puncturing and opening it, creating small cuts. A few droplets of blood dripped from his cheek.

"Naruto-kun, my second rival!" A familiar cheery voice called out. Lee and his team, who had just came back from a mission and happened to be heading to the Hokage tower to report, spotted Naruto on the bridge and decided to talk to him. His back was turned to them as the green spandex-wearing male smiled and started skipping over to him.

"Naruto-kun! It is good to see you again my second rival!" Lee fist pumped, oblivious to the anger that Naruto was displaying. Tenten and Neji gave each other a look before walking up to the scene.

"Are you alright Naruto-kun? You seem troubled." Neji asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

Tenten stopped walking and softly gasped when she noticed the blood below them. She looked back up at the blond who had his back turned to them and gently touched his shoulder.

"Naruto-kun, you're bleeding! We need to get you some bandages." She stated in a panicked voice. Naruto turned to them with a fake grin and closed his eyes, covering up his bloody cheek with his hand.

"Don't worry about it, it's just a scratch. It'll heal in no time." He gave a thumbs up.

"If you say so..." Tenten and Neji exchanged another look towards each other before turning their gazes back over at Naruto.

"Really, thanks for stopping by to see how I was doing, but I gotta run. There's some...things I need to do." Naruto made a couple of hand signs before disappearing into thin air.

Lee turned around to his teammates and frowned. "I do not think Naruto-kun is alright." Tenten and Neji nodded in agreement.

"Your right Lee! I hope he's okay..." Tenten said, genuinely concerned. Naruto was like a brother to her.

Neji sighed. "I think it's best if we give him some space. As for now, we should be going to see Tsunade-sama to report our mission." Lee and Tenten nodded in agreement before they began to make their way to the Hokage tower once again.

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"Baka..."

Sasuke gave a long and tired sigh. He had waited hours for Naruto to show up at the training grounds, but to his surprise, the blond never showed up. It irked him that he, Uchiha Sasuke, had for once in his life got stood up. And for it to have been from his idiot teammate irked him even more. He looked up at the orange and purple sky from beneath the long branches of the tree he was sitting on and decided to return home before his fangirls found him.

He stood up and dusted himself off before readying himself to jump down the tree. He gracefully landed on the ground and was ready to walk home when he felt a certain presence behind him. A good presence.

"So, Naruto never showed up, huh? Well isn't this a first! Mr. Uchiha finally got stood up." Kakashi said as he leaned against a tree with his hands in his pockets, amusement filled in his voice. Sasuke scowled at the man and turned away, only to have his waist encircled by a pair of two strong arms. Kakashi sighed and nuzzled into the young Uchiha's neck.

"Calm down Sasuke, I was only teasing." He said smoothly in Sasuke's ear, causing the dark-haired male to shiver at the hot breath near his ear. The male behind him suddenly disappeared and reappeared with his legs opened as he sat back against a large tree.

"Come here Sasuke." He motioned for Sasuke to come to him, which the Uchiha didn't protest and silently obeyed. Sasuke planted himself in between Kakashi's legs. A small smile made it's way upon his face when he felt those arms encircle his frame once more. He took his hands and intertwined them with Kakashi's as they watched the sunset together.

Their relationship started a year ago when Sasuke had returned to the village and was put on house arrest. Tsunade didn't trust Sasuke alone and thought he could possibly break the chakra bonds she had on him;so she insisted that Kakashi live and watch him until further notice, which Kakashi happily agreed to. Sasuke always had a secret crush on the older man, but never told a soul or even hinted it to Kakashi himself. That is until one night when Kakashi had came out of the shower, clad in only a towl, that Sasuke felt his emotions take over. Kakashi had known that the young Uchiha had a crush on him, but the boner Sasuke had told him that what Sasuke felt for him was more than a mere crush. He asked Sasuke to help him_ 'dry off'_, to which the young Uchiha quickly _'helped'_ with. And he helped him good alright.

Since then, the two have been secretly dating. The only people who had known of their relationship were themselves, Naruto, and Might guy. Both, which found out by pure accident.

Gai had came to challenge Kakashi to a race around the village at the wrong time. He entered Kakashi's bedroom with his famous killer smile to which quickly faded when he found the two males in a 69 position on Kakashi's bed. Kakashi had to hold his young lover back from killing the stunned older man that Kakashi deemed as his best friend. Gai promised to never tell a soul. Naruto had found out because when Kakashi blew his team off to do some _'reading'_ he noticed Kakashi give Sasuke a certain look before vanishing. Curiosity taking its course, Naruto decided to silently follow Sasuke that day. He ended up following the young Uchiha all the way to an empty park and hid in the trees above from where Sasuke sat on the bench, alone from below. He saw Kakashi appear and sit next to Sasuke. Next thing he knew, his best friend and sensei were having a fierce make-out session. He was so shocked and surprised he fell out of the tree and in between them. Kakashi had to pry Sasuke off of an almost dead Naruto. Once Naruto regained his breath, he immediately promised to keep their relationship on the down low.

The two males remained in a comfortable silence for a long period of time as the sky before them that used to be orange and purple, began to turn a deep blue, stars beginning to twinkle to signal that night time had arrived.

Sasuke broke the silence. "You think the idiot is okay?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the rare concern he heard in his young lover's voice and grinned.

"My, getting soft are we?" Sasuke scowled and looked back at Kakashi with a serious look.

"I'm serious Kakashi. It's not like him to miss out on a fight..." Kakashi stared into the concerned eyes of his lover and thought for a moment before smiling at Sasuke through his mask.

"I wouldn't worry too much Sasuke. You know Naruto...He probably got too excited, was trying out a new power move and ended up hurting himself. He's probably in bed right now as we speak, fast asleep with a cup of cold ramen next to him on his dresser." Sasuke nodded at Kakashi's reassuring words.

"I hope you're right." And honestly, Sasuke really did hope he was.

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That night, Naruto sat in his room in utter silence, only clad in black boxers. He was staring straight forward at nothing in particular as the darkness of his room swelled around him.

The words that Sakura had said to him earlier had been floating around in his head all day.

_'You little bitch!' _Naruto tried to stop himself from thinking about it, but the rest of her words continued to ring in his head. '_I don't understand why Sasuke-kun would waste his time on a pathetic being like you!' _Naruto gritted his teeth, trying to ease the pain that swelled deep down within his chest. He had been called pathetic by people many times before, but the fact that it came from Sakura, whom he loved deeply, was hurting him more than he thought it would.

He covered his ears with his hands as the rest and the worst of the sentence rang in his head. _'You're n__othing but a piece of garbage that needs to be thrown away.'_ Naruto felt his throat get dry as a certain prick he hated to feel, pricked in his eyes. _'Go k__ill yourself, demon!' _ Naruto couldn't stop the tears from leaking out his eyes as he began heavily panting. Now Naruto had never thought about suicide before, but with the pain that he felt in his chest, killing himself didn't seem like such a bad idea. He began to sob heavily and and covered his ears once again from the voices of the inner demons had in his head.

_'Why don't you just kill yourself? Seems like a good idea. You won't have to feel anymore pain...' _Naruto looked over at his ninja pouch, his kunai producing a small shining light in the darkness as the moon light glared down on it from the window. Naruto shook his head. 'I can't kill myself...I have too many people who would care.' He began to argue with himself. There was nothing but silence until a familiar voice growled in his head.

_**'Weak human...You know better than to let these people get to you!' **_Kyuubi snapped at him, crossing her giant paws in her cage as she sighed. Over the years, Kyuubi began to soften up to Naruto. She wished she could form into a human and kill all the people that had given Naruto so much grief, but alas, she could do nothing but watch him suffer from the pain of the species she hated the most. Human beings.

Out of nowhere, Naruto began to burst out into a fit of giggles. But it wasn't his usual happy, uplifting giggles. No. These giggles were more of a dark sinister one. Kyuubi suddenly shivered. She felt Naruto slowly losing himself as her chakra link to him became stronger. Whenever Naruto let his emotions get the better of him, he was unconsciously letting Kyuubi's power take over. At first, all she ever wanted was to take over Naruto's body, but now, she loved him too much to even think about such a thought.

What was mere giggles, now turned into slightly louder chuckles, and soon he began hysterically laughing. Ever so slowly, he felt himself slowly slipping away the more he laughed as his baby blue eyes that held so much promise and happiness, turned into glowing red ones of pure evilness, slits replacing round, blacks pupils. His nails began to lengthen and turn into claws as he scratched at his bare and exposed chest. He started rapidly scratching at it, loving the pain he was receiving.

_**'Kit...' **_Kyuubi tried to talk to him, but he didn't respond. He laughed even louder when blood began to drizzled down from the scars he was making on his chest. Blood dripped onto his fingers when he began to scratched and claw even further into his skin.

_**'Kit stop!'** _Kyuubi barked loudly, which seemed to snap Naruto out of his trance. For a moment, he stopped laughing and removed his clawed hand from his crimson-colored chest. He lifted his hand up to his face and watched as the blood leaked onto the blue covers he was sitting on. He took his blood-covered hand and inserted his index finger into his mouth, sucking the blood off of it. He licked his lips when he was finished and did the same with his other fingers, then licked the rest of the blood off his entire hand.

When he was sure there was no more blood on his hand to be licked, he stood up and stared at the ceiling, ignoring the blood that was slowly falling between his thighs. He held himself, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and grinned, exposing his pointed fanged-teeth. He stared into the darkness of the room and sniffed the air, which smelt of despair and the metallic scent of blood. But that's the way he liked it, just like every night.

For once, Naruto felt safe. He didn't have to worry about anything when he felt himself being consumed by the darkness. It was as if no one could touch him and he was in his own world;away from everything that ever hurt him or threatened to.

Seeing as he wasn't going to heal himself and could die at the rate he was losing blood, Kyuubi began healing him. In his mind, Naruto payed no mind to Kyuubi and stared at the golden-colored water below him. Two of Kyuubi's giant tails snaked there way out of her prison and lifted Naruto up in the air and into the cage. All she could do now was just hold the saddened boy and nuzzle him into her soft fur.

Both Naruto and Kyuubi failed to notice a small mouse in the darkened corner of the room, it's red eyes glistening in the moon light. It slowly slipped away and into the shadows, further unseen by the world.

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The next day, Naruto had received a message from ANBU earlier that morning that he was requested for a mission from the 5th Hokage herself, Tsunade. It was just a simple scroll retrieval mission; nothing that Naruto couldn't handle.

He had on his usual fake smile as he stared at the five people whom would be on the team for the mission. Two of whom were childhood friends, Kiba and Shikamaru, along with Akamaru who was wagging his tail rapidly.

The other two whom already were on his team from the start. Sai and Sakura.

Shikamaru sighed with boredom and turned to his team. "Alright, I want to make this mission quick, so I don't want any funny business or child's play." Shikamru was saying to everyone, but his eyes landed on Kiba and Naruto.

"We won't cause any trouble, right Akamaru?" Akamaru wagged his tail rapidly and gave a large bark.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow in surprise when Naruto didn't comment or even make a face to show that he was insulted by his words. Usually, the loud idiot had something to say, but Naruto merely nodded and made a straight face. Shikamaru gave him a questioning look, but shrugged his shoulders and placed his deer ANBU mask on his face, the others doing the same. Sakura wore the mask of the bear, Kiba of the dog, obviously, Sai of the possum, and Naruto of the fox. How convenient.

"I will take the lead. Kiba and Akamaru, you take the rear. Sai and Sakura, you take the sides. Naruto, Cover for me." Shikamara gave a straight forward demand, to which everyone nodded in too.

"Hai!" The four said in chorus, Akamaru adding his own bark.

"Alright, lets move out. Tch...this is such a drag." Shikamaru said in a bored tone before vanishing, the others quickly following.

Naruto slipped on his mask and was about to join the others when a hand touched his shoulder. He turned to see Sakura, her piercing green eyes glaring at him through his mask.

"Don't mess this up for us Naruto." She spat with venom, before disappearing into the trees to catch up with Shikamaru and the others.

Naruto stared at the spot his pink-haired teammate had been in before disappearing into the trees and landing beside Kiba. As much as he loved Sakura, he couldn't help but glare at his female teammate. The fact that he had such a crush on the bitch still confused him. But at that moment, instead of crushing on her, he wanted to crush her until she looked unrecognizable and un-human to the human eye.

And if looks could kill, Sakura would be on the ground, laying in her own pool of blood. Oh yes, what he wouldn't have given at that moment to see her lifeless corpse rotting on the ground, right under his feet, before he would kick it several feet away and into a large river for fish to feed on her flesh. Then she would only be nothing but pure bones, forever forgotten to have ever existed in this world.

A sly grin made its way under the fox mask as Naruto thought about it. Eyes turning slightly red as they narrowed at her figure in front of him.

Beside him, Akamaru whimpered and his ears and tail flattened.

Kiba sensed his best friend's distressed and furrowed his eyebrows. "What's wrong Akamaru?" Akamaru made a small, yet soft 'yep' sound, to which Kiba understood as if speaking with another human being. He nodded and looked over at Naruto. He almost stopped in his tracks, for if he weren't in mid air. The killer vibe that was coming from Naruto made him shiver in fear.

He slightly grinned and poked Naruto's arm. Naruto didn't respond, but turned to Kiba's direction to indicate that he was listening to the dog-like shinobi. "Hey, you alright buddy?" A golden eyebrow raised under his fox mask at the concerned question, but Naruto nodded and put a thumbs up towards his friend.

"Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Naruto said cheerily from under his mask, but Kiba could tell he was lying and simply nodded at the blond.

"Just making sure." He didn't say another word as Naruto sped up to cover Shikamaru, like the lazy ANBU captain had ordered him to do. Their padded sandals barely making a sound as they flew from branch to branch like ghosts. The only sound being heard was the dropping of crisp leafs and birds chirping.

It may have seemed like everything was alright, but the dog-like shinobi was getting a very uneasy feeling in his stomach, and something was telling him that this mission was going to be a disaster.

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**(1) I know demons are genderless, but I've heard that Kyuubi is actually a female! And even if he/she/it isn't, I still love the idea of a female Kyuubi, so you'll just have to roll with it!**

**...**

**Toki: So there you have it, my new yaoi fic. Whattaya think?!**

**~Naruto~ Wow Toki, that's really dark, even for you.**

**Toki: I know right? What about you Saucy?**

**Sasuke: Interesting...**

**Toki: Uh huh...So back to my readers!...If I even have any? If I do, it would be much appreciated if you could kindly review and let me know if I should continue this story or not. Sometimes, I get an idea and I feel it's a good one, when it's really not. So ever so kindly, please review and let me know. Im counting on you guys! Review, Review, review!**

**Toki Out O3O**


	2. The Bad Feeling

**A Crack In The Mask**

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**Toki: Oh my muffins you guys...So I'm surprised that this story got up to 10 reviews already! It makes me so happy that I have already received so much positive feedback on this, I'm literately smiling like a big idiot right now! It really gives me confidence as a new writer to.. well, write! Anyways, thank you for the support and I hope you continue to love this story!**

**~Naruto~ Yay, go Toki-Chan! *Sasuke sighs***

**Sasuke: You're rambling again...  
**

**Toki: Oopsy! Of course I can't forget about disclaimer and warnings. Here we go!**

**Warnings: More Sakura bashing (Don't we all just love that?), swearing (Because does this really need a warning?), and finally, depressed Naruto...He won't be like that for too long, I promise!**

**Disclaimer: Does it seem like I own Naruto or Itachi? NOPE! **

**~Naruto~ Enjoy chapter 2 of A Crack In The Mask!  
**

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**Chapter 2: The Bad Feeling**

Shikamaru, followed by Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru, Sakura and Sai flew down from the trees and onto the solid earth ground. Shikamaru and his team had finished their mission with ease about two hours ago and needed to rest. Being an ANBU captain, he decided that since night time was approaching and that it would take another day and a half to make it back to the village, that they would stop and stay the night in a hotel or inn by a nearby town. They entered the town with ease and began towards the nearest inn or hotel they could find. Only a few people were out on the streets at this time of hour, which was almost twelve in the morning. After five minutes of searching, Kiba spotted a small hotel just on the east side of town.

A young man that looked about in his twenties, who had tan hair and blue eyes, looked up at them and slightly jumped from behind the desk when he saw Akamaru. He glared and pointed at Akamaru, who growled at him in response. Kiba glared back and petted Akamaru. "Easy boy..."

"Absolutely no dogs allowed. So either take that sack of flea bag outta' here or don't come back at all." The guy said in a non-friendly tone, oblivious to the anger Kiba was now displaying. "Who you callin' a flea bag asshole!?" The guy's glare became even harsher.

Shikamaru sighed in irritation while Sakura slapped Kiba in the back of the head in a not so gently way. Sai, and surprisingly Naruto, watched the scene in silence. "Stop acting so damn immature Kiba, I'm tired and I need my beauty sleep. Make nice or I'll make you act nice!" The pink-haired kunoichi threatened the dog-like ninja, her fist already raised in the air, prepared to hit him again if he refused.

Kiba glared at her for a mere second before grinning madly. "But even with sleep, you're still an ugly bitch." The slightest smile was seen on Sai's face before it faded away. At that moment, Sakura saw nothing but red and was prepared to strangle Kiba when a mere elderly lady came out with a huge smile on her face. Everyone turned their attention to her as she bowed at Shikamaru and the others, then looked over at her grandson.

"Wan, stop making such a fuss and let these young people in. They've obviously been through a lot and need a place to rest."

The young male pointed towards Akamaru once again and glared at Kiba, who gladly glared right back. "But grandma, they have a dog and it probably has fleas!" Before Kiba could say anything, the elderly lady shook her head and spoke. "No matter. I'm sure the dog doesn't have fleas." She turned back to Shikamaru and the others with a big smile. "How many rooms deary?"

"Three." Sakura responded quickly as Shikamaru handed the man some money.

"Three it is. Pass me the keys Wan." Her grandson looked at Kiba one more time before opening a desk drawer and handing his grandmother three keys. The lady smiled and handed Shikamaru three keys. "Your rooms will be 304, 305 and 306. Enjoy your stay." Shikamaru bowed to her as they began to head upstairs.

Once they finally made it up, Sakura quickly turned around and held her hand out. "Give me that." She snatched a room key out of Shikamaru's hand and opened her door, slamming it shut with a loud 'thud.' Kiba raised an eyebrow at her behavior.

"What's got her in bitch-mode? She must be pms-ing..." Kiba said rather loudly.

Shikamaru sighed when he heard the sound of a vase colliding with the wall from Sakura's room. "Exactly that, right there, is the problem." He pointed at Kiba who looked honestly confused. Shikamaru sighed and shook his head. "Let's just go to our rooms before she decides to come out and kill you. Bringing a dead body back to Konoha would be such a drag..." Shikamaru lazily tossed Naruto his key before entering his room with Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba said goodnight to Naruto and Sai before the door to their room shut softly.

Naruto and Sai stood silently in the hallway for a couple of seconds before Naruto opened the door to their room. They each took a seat on one of the two beds in the room and began to unpack and get ready for the night. They sat in silence, yet, it was an uncomfortable one. Naruto knew Sai to be a man of few words, and after years of working with for so long, he had gotten use to the pale male's quietness.

Sai, however, was not used to Naruto being so silent and stared at the blond from across the room with a quizzical look. By now the blond would have said something stupid or began to ramble on about their mission and the ups and downs of it, yet, he was as quiet as a mouse, which irked Sai. Another thing that irked Sai was that not once today had he seen Naruto grin or even give the slightest smile. Even with the mask on, Sai could tell what Naruto's face was doing. Not once today did Naruto's eyes tilt upward or bounce happily through the mask like usual, which Sai assumed that he was frowning the entire time. And out of all the years of faking emotions, Sai could tell Naruto had been faking happiness all day. Matter of fact, now that Sai thought about it, Naruto often faked his joy and happiness.

Sai was almost tempted to ask if he was okay, but refrained from doing so and continued to watch Naruto as he took his ANBU mask off. Naruto sat on his bed in deep thought for a moment before looking up and catching Sai's gaze on him. If Naruto didn't know any better, Sai looked utterly confused as he stared at him. It was rare for Naruto to see Sai display any type of emotion, but out of all of them, why did he seem confused?

"What's up Sai?" Sai inwardly flinched. This was the first time Naruto had spoken today and for the first time in all of Sai's life, Naruto sounded as if he was completely drained of emotions. It slightly scared Sai, but he didn't show it and merely shook his head, turning away from Naruto and back to his bag.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and stood up, walking towards the window. He opened it and propped his elbows up against the wooden rail, He looked up at the starry sky where a full moon had been shining brightly. He closed his eyes and sighed in content as the chill night air blew on his face and into his golden locks. It felt good, as if cool hands were running their fingers through his hair. For once that day, he felt happy and smiled.

That is until Sakura's words from the other way began to make their way into his head again. His eyes immediately opened. He felt his body tense up and mentally cursed as the words started to float back into his head.

_You always ruin __everything..._

_I don't understand why Sasuke-kun would waste his time on a pathetic being like you..._

_You're nothing but a piece of garbage that needs to be thrown away..._

_Go kill yourself, demon..._

With each line, Naruto felt like he was being stabbed repetitively in the chest and felt as if he couldn't breath. He started to softly hyperventilate. He could feel Sai's gaze still on him and gripped the wooden rail on the window tightly, ignoring the splinters that went into his hands. He didn't want Sai or anyone to see him like this. He needed closure and wanted to be alone. He looked out the window before turning back to Sai with a fake smile.

"I'm going out for a while. I'll be back later." Before Sai could even say anything, the blond disappeared.

* * *

Sasuke was seated on the edge of his balcony, glancing down at the silent streets of Konoha with his cold, piercing eyes. Since Orochimaru's attack on the village five years ago, Tsunade made a curfew for every citizen to remain indoors by eleven o' clock every night until six o' clock in the morning. The only people that remained on the streets were scouting ANBU and a few Jounin guarding the village. No sound was made at that moment, except for the chilly wind that blew against Sasuke's face, causing his bangs to shield his eyesight for a couple of seconds.

He suddenly felt a chill roll down his spine, but it was not from the chilly wind. He quickly looked behind him into his darkened bedroom. He shook his head and sighed. The only thing that was in his room was Kakashi who was fast asleep. His mask was removed, revealing his handsome face and all of its features. Of course, Sasuke was the only person in the entire world who had ever seen these features, and he intended to keep it that way for a long time. Kakashi snuggled into the soft mattress even more before opening one of his eyes and giving Sasuke a sleepy smile. He turned over and went right back to sleep.

Another chill went up the Uchiha's spine as he ever so slowly looked up at the full moon that shined brightly in the sky. He glared at it with as much hatred as possible when memories of the night his clan was slaughtered began to resurface into his mind. He had tried so hard to forget the past over and over, but no matter how hard he tried, they would always come back. Especially on nights like this when the moon was full. This was the exact moon that had been in the sky during the night of the murder.

As if it was mocking him, the moon seemed to glow brighter, producing a spot light on Sasuke's pale and half-covered form. Unintentionally, his cold black eyes were quickly being replaced with the crimson-colored sharingan as his glare intensified on the glowing rock in the sky. His fist clenched and he barred his teeth at it. Suddenly, his eyes widened as his heart rate began to increase. For a moment, he thought he saw Itachi's face smirking at him in the moon, but it was only an illusion.

Unconsciously, a tear rolled down from his left eye. Every time a full moon appeared, he got a bad feeling. But tonight, he hadn't felt a terrible feeling like that since the night of his clan's murder. For once, Uchiha Sasuke was actually scared. He shut his eyes tightly as he put a hand over his rapidly beating chest and took deep breaths to try and calm himself down. An exercise he had been taught while with Orochimaru.

"Sasuke." His eyes suddenly opened when a pair of warm arms wrapped around his bare torso. He slowly turned to face a sleepy, yet serious, looking Kakashi. All this time Kakashi had been silently watching the young male. He, other than Naruto, knew how much the full moon affected Sasuke and it always saddened him to see his young love in such distress.

"It won't help to dwell on the past Sasuke. It will only hold you back." At that moment, Sasuke tried to look strong, but Kakashi could see through him easily like looking through a glass cup. He could see the pain and sadness that was held in Sasuke's eyes as he whipped the single tear that fell down from the young Uchiha's cheek and held him tighter. He smiled and spoke again. "Come back to bed Sas..." Kakashi stopped in mid sentence when Sasuke roughly pushed him off. Kakashi looked at Sasuke's face clearly for the very first time as it shined in the moonlight. His eyes widened. For a moment, Sasuke looked like a frightened child and was slightly shaking.

"Sasuke..." Unconsciously, tears furiously rolled down Sasuke's cheeks as he buried himself into the crook of the older man's neck. Kakashi wrapped his arms around Sasuke and carried him over to the bed, shutting and locking the balcony doors. He gently placed Sasuke down on the edge of the bed before bending down on the floor and cupping his young love's cheeks. He lovingly kissed him on the lips for a brief second before whipping his tears away.

"What's wrong Sasuke...?" Sasuke didn't respond and looked away, gritting his teeth. He hated when he let his emotions get the better of him. But for some reason, he couldn't hide his emotions from Kakashi and slowly turned to look at him to see Kakashi giving him a saddened look.

"I...I don't know what it is..." He gulped and looked down from Kakashi's gaze.

"What? What is it Sasuke?" Kakashi tilted his head back up as Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes. He just couldn't look at Kakashi at the moment. So instead, he decided to hold his hands in Kakashi's as he spoke.

He gave a loud and heavy sigh before continuing. "This feeling...You know how much I dislike full moons and I always feel as if something might happen, but tonight..." He gulped and looked up at the older man with teary eyes. "I have...I have the same feeling in my stomach as I did the night before my clan's murder." He finished. Kakashi didn't say a word, or rather he just didn't know how to respond. Instead of talking, he silently held Sasuke, wrapping his arms around his torso. Sasuke wrapped his arms around Kakashi's neck and buried his face into his silver hair, inhaling Kakashi's scent. For some odd reason, that always gave him comfort.

* * *

Sai softly knocked on the door and waited for one of the two males to answer it for a couple of minutes. Finally, a sleepy Shikamaru opened the door and narrowed his eyes at Sai, wondering what of all people, he wanted.

"We're not leaving for another five hours. Something wrong?" He yawned before stepping to the side and letting Sai in. Kiba was passed out on one of the beds, sprawled out with his sheets all over the place while Akamaru laid on the couch. Akamaru slowly lifted his head and looked over at Shikamaru and Sai before putting his head down and going back to sleep.

Shikamaru closed the door and looked at Sai. He thought his eyes were playing a trick on him for a second when he noticed the genuine concern in the usually emotionless ninja's face. But Sai actually looked worried. The emotion instantly faded and he was back to his usual blank mask before he began to talk.

"Naruto has been gone for three hours and hasn't returned." If Shikamaru wasn't fully awake, he was now as he assed the information he was just told. Akamaru quickly lifted his head up and whimpered. He jumped off the couch and walked over towards the two, taking a seat beside Shikamaru to listen to the conversation. Shikamaru looked down just in time to see the large dog's ears go flat before petting him on the head.

"What do you mean he's been gone for three hours? Did he say where he was going?" Sai shook his head as Shikamaru inwardly cursed and looked down at Akamaru. "All right, I want you to take Akamaru with you and search for Naruto. In the mean time, I'll wake Sakura and Kiba up. We'll meet up with you soon." Sai nodded. Akamaru's ears perked up as he stood and licked Shikamaru's hand, as if understanding his orders. Sai looked down at Akamaru who now stood next to him. He barked happily and wagged his tail while looking up at Sai. Sai nodded and made a couple of hand signs before both disappeared into thin air.

"Dammit Naruto, you could have just talked to me if you had a problem. Why do you have to be so troublesome..." He looked over at Kiba and with a sigh, he slowly made his way over to the couch, took a pillow from it and threw it at Kiba's face. Kiba yelped and rolled out of bed with a large 'thud.'

"What the fuck man!?" Shikamaru ignored the angry shouts Kiba was giving him and began putting his ANBU gear on. Kiba sat up and glared at Shikamaru, rubbing his now aching head. He stopped to look around the room and frowned, noticing his furry friend was nowhere to be found. He looked back over at a now shirtless Shikamaru and blushed before frowning again.

"I know you didn't wake me up to give me a strip tease, and where the hell is Akamaru!?" Shikamaru sighed and threw Kiba his ANBU mask, which Kiba caught expertly with one hand.

Suddenly, the door slammed open, revealing an angry/tired looking pink-haired kunoichi.

"What the hell is going on!?" Kiba shrugged and glared at Shikamaru once again.

"You tell me! First this guy," said Kiba, pointing at Shikamaru who groaned, "threw a pillow at my face, then gives me a strip tease and now Akamaru is no where in sight!" Both leaf shinobi looked over at Shikamaru who started walking towards the door, fully dressed.

"Naruto's gone missing. Put on your gear, we're heading out."

Silence...and then:

"NANI?!"

Shikamaru groaned. Why did he have such troublesome teammates.

* * *

At that moment, the only sounds that were being heard were the crickets that chirped in the grass as Naruto stood silently in the clearing of the forest. Alone. He wrapped his arms around himself as the cold wind of the night whirled around his body. The light from the full moon beaming down on his face; making the fresh tears rolling down his cheeks glisten as they dropped silently on the forest floor below him.

The wind suddenly became harsher, blowing against his back. But Naruto didn't care. At that moment, all Naruto felt was the pain that swelled deep within his chest. It hurt so badly that the only person whom he had ever dedicated his heart to the most shut him down just like that, as if he was just an insignificant being that didn't belong in her perfectly pink world. The pressure he was feeling upon his chest felt as if a herd of elephants were standing on top of it. It was hard for him to breathe and the air felt like torture.

_Pathetic being..._

_Trash..._

_Go kill yourself de__mon..._

_Demon..._

Naruto began to feel sick. The pressure he felt in his chest made him nauseous and, before he could do anything, he began to throw up excessively on the ground. He held his stomach as he puked for what felt like forever while leaning against a tree for support. He felt his knees begin to give out and his body weaken. He clutched onto his hurting stomach and fell onto the forest floor with a soft 'thud'. "It hurts..." He whispered as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and continued to sob, letting his emotions get the better of him.

As if the moon became brighter, it began to produce a shining spot light on him in the clearing. He glared at the moon as if it were mocking him and closed his eyes, feeling more hot tears run down his cheeks. His nails and teeth began to sharpen while his eyes turned crimson and pupils turned into splits. He tugged at his shirt as a sinister grin made it's way upon his face. If the pain in his chest wouldn't stop, he would make it stop...

"No more...It hurts..." He lifted his shirt up and positioned his clawed hands right where his heart was before rapidly scratching at the skin, loving the pain of tearing his skin and his own self apart. He was living in his own insanity.

**_'Kit...' _**Kurama closed her eyes and put her head down, resting it on top of her paws. She wanted to comfort him so badly, but in the state he was in at that moment, the only person that could help him was himself. She growled, exposing her sharp fangs. If she could, she wished she could escape out of Naruto without hurting him for a mere second just to bite Sakura's head off. She had the desire to do that for a long time. However since Naruto and her were mere children. Kurama had never took a liking to the pink-haired female and was the only human, if not somewhat Sasuke, whom she desired for Naruto to kill badly or be killed by her own two bare hands...paws.

Abruptly, Kurama's head lifted up as her ears perked up. She bared her fangs and narrowed her eyes as she sensed a familiar chakra. Not a good one either...

_**'Kit...'** _No response, in which made Kyuubi growl in frustration._ **'****Kit, we have to go now...DAMMIT!'** _At times like this, she wished Naruto wasn't so emotional.

Two shadows suddenly appeared in the clearing.

"Hello, Naruto-kun."

* * *

Tsunade and Shizune stood by the coin machine in a nearby gambling club deep within Konoha. Shizune sighed while Ton-Ton squirmed to get out of her arms as they watched Tsunade put in a set of coins in the machine. _'Why is she so __gullible?' _Shizune mentally rolled her eyes.

She grabbed Tsunade's shoulder, holding Ton-Ton tightly in her other free arm."Lady Tsunade, we've been here for hours. Plus, you have a meeting with the council in a couple of minutes." Tsunade shooed her off and pulled the clutch to the machine, watching the machine with an intense stare. Shizune shook her head and sighed once more.

Tsunade looked back at Shizune with a grin and put her hands on her hips. "Yeah, yeah...This will be my last round okay?" Shizune visibly rolled her eyes this time. _'It's not like she's going to win...'_

**'WINNER, WINNER, WINNER!'**

Tsunade and Shizune looked stunned and ever so slowly looked at the machine to see three matching monkey heads. Gold coins rapidly came out of the machine, sending Tsunade on edge. She took a step back from the machine. Ton-Ton's ears went down when he felt Shizune's grip on him tighten. Shizune looked a bit startled as well and slowly turned over towards Tsunade. Tsunade actually winning money was always bad sign.

Shizune gulped. "Lady Tsunade..." Tsunade didn't respond and shook her head.

"Shizune...I have a bad feeling." Nothing but an intense stare was shared between the two females as the chilly wind from the opened windows blew in their faces. Ton-Ton's ears went flat as he whimpered.

Tsunade winning money was not a good sign.

* * *

_**'KIT, GET UP!' **_Kyuubi screamed, finally getting her container's attention. She sighed in relief, but was still put on edge. With the state Naruto was in at that moment, he definitely wouldn't be able to fight off these two people. She inwardly cursed and tried to think of a solution as Naruto collected himself in the outer world.

Naruto continued to sob for a couple of seconds before realizing he wasn't alone in the clearing anymore. He instantly snapped out of his murderous trance, wiping his tears away with his bloody hand as he slowly turned back to normal, not caring about the blood he had just smeared on his face. He frowned as his eyes tried to adjust on the two figures before him. He had cried so much that his vision was foggy and it was hard to focus. He blinked a couple of times before his vision finally became clear. He shakily stood up from the ground, using a nearby tree for support, trying to ignore the feeling of his knees giving out on him. He clutched his still hurting stomach from his earlier excessive vomitting and narrowed his eyes at the two cloaked figures before him. He felt his heart stop when he finally took notice and recognized the familiar black cloaked figures.

"Good evening Naruto-kun." Naruto ever so slowly looked up and into the eyes of the one speaking to him.

Pale blue eyes met crimson red.

* * *

**Toki: Haha...cliffhanger...sort of...Sorry if the chapter seems short, but the full chapter would have been REALLY long and I wanted to make it suspenseful, so I split the chapters!**

**Sasuke: Wasn't your goal to make extra long chapters?**

**Toki: Isn't it YOUR goal to be the uke in your relationship with Naruto?**

**~Naruto~ Oh don't worry, he is!**

**Sasuke: NANI?!**

**Toki: Come on Sasuke, uke is even in your name SasUKE...Get with the program, it's always been NaruSasu.**

**Sasuke: NANI!?**

**~Naruto~ Come on Sasuke, we got some love making to do! Hope you enjoyed the chappie. See ya Toki!**

**Sasuke: ... NANI?! **** *Naruto slings Sasuke over his shoulder and poofs out of the room***

**Toki: He's such a confused child. Until next time and maybe if I can get more than 5 reviews I'll update faster...?! (*˘︶˘*)(´･_･`) **

**...**

**Reply To Reviews**

Rosebunse: **CONGRATULATIONS! You are my first reviewer and I want to thank you for that because reviews make me so happy! Thank you again deary and you get a free cookie!**

clio1111: **OMG you have no idea how much me, my beta, and my muse just laughed at your comment! My best friend is on the floor dying XD And I know, it may seem a bit harsh that all Sasuke does is "hope", but In Saucy's case, he doesn't understand what Naru-chan is going through, let alone Kakashi. Sasuke cares a lot about Naruto and sees him as a brother, and because of the way Naruto acts between when he's around people and when he's alone, everyone thinks he's fine. As for killing Sakura...we shall see ;) Anyway's thank you for the review, it's much appreciated.**

AiMila: **YES! Finally SOMEONE agrees with me! Female Kurama explains it all with Naruto's ****cuteness, even tough he's a cute pie all on his own! But yes, Naruto does have a lot of patience because if I was him, I would have strangled Sakura a long time ago XD! Thanks for the review!**

stefire: **Aww, thank you, BUT**** DON'T BEG! There's no need ****dear because I upload every Friday, so...DON'T PANIC XD! And yes, don't we all love female Kurama. Thanks for the review!**

thor94: **Doesn't everyone just want to hit Sakura? XD Thank you for the review ****dear!**

MaiKanon: **Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! There's not many KakaSasu stories out there, but I think the couple is utterly adorable! Thank you for the review dear!**

saya420: **Awww, thank you deary! I'm glad you like it and I'm a quick updater, so you wont have to worry about me updating! I update every Friday!**

Sassy618: **Thank you for the review darling!**

TrinityHale: **I'm glad you like it so far, it makes me so happy you do! Thank you for the review!**

Be:** Thank you for the review dear!**

**...**

**Toki Out O3O**


	3. The Abduction

**A Crack In The Mask**

* * *

**Toki: Okay, where's my gun...Here we go. *Grabs huge shotgun***

**~Naruto~ Toki-chan, violence is not the answer! *Panics and hides behind Sasuke***

**Sasuke: Actually, I like her dark side...*Smirks* But just out of curiosity, why are you so murderous this week? Not that I'm complaining.**

**Toki: *Puts gun down and sighs* 'Cause of my frickin' muse, that's why!****  
**

**~Naruto~ What did she do!?**

**Toki: Where do I begin...This week she wouldn't stop bitching to me about getting this chapter out! Everyday it's been 'GET IT OUT NOW!', 'Hurry up ****bish, I need to edit and know what happens next!' 'Diddly' 'She wants the diddly' 'Diddly this, diddly that!' Like, SHUT UP! UGHHH...**

**Sasuke: That's what this is about? I thought it was about something important.**

**Toki: You know what...? I don't have the energy to argue with you right now... Here's the warnings and disclaimer.**

**Warnings: As usual, Sakura being a bitch...and a bit of yaoi... ヾ(*´∀｀*)ﾉ**

**Disclaimer: Itachi wants to be mine, but M.K refuses to give him to me (´･_･`)**

**~By the way~**

**●Talking- **"ItaNaru"

**●Thinking-**_'ItaNaru'_

**●Flashback- **_***ItaNaru***_

**●Naruto Mentally Talking- **'ItaNaru'

**●Kyuubi/Kurama Talking: _'ItaNaru'_**

**●Kyuubi/Kurama Thinking:_ (ItaNau)_**

**Toki: That's enough of my babbling! Enjoy chapter 3 of A Crack In The Mask!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Abduction**

"Good evening Naruto-kun."

Naruto blinked, then he blinked again.

He rubbed his eyes with his free hand and re-opened them, just to make sure that the two figures in front of him weren't just an illusion. It had been so long since his first encounter with these two people. So long in fact, he couldn't quite remember the taller one's name, but recognized his face and the cocky grin that was plastered on it. However, the shorter one was someone unforgettable; someone Naruto swore to never run into alone. The very person that turned Sasuke into what he was to this day...

"Uchiha Itachi..." Naruto slowly gulped and turned away from his piercing, glowing red gaze, looking down at the ground. _'Shit...what do I do!?'_ He thought frantically to himself.

Kyuubi growled in frustration, unable to think of any solution for the situation at the moment. **_'Just stay strong and try to hold them off as long as you can kit...I can feel your friends coming...'_ **Kyuubi knew that Shikamaru and the others other were no match for the Akatsuki, even with the Nara's brains and Tsunade's apprentice powers combined. **(**_**Damn pink-haired human! This situation wouldn't be happening if it weren't for you...) **_Kyuubi thought bitterly while growling unconsciously, still trying to come up with an escape plan.

Naruto slowly looked back up at the two Akatsuki members with a serious gaze, trying to ignore the pain and the blood dripping down from his chest. Without thinking clearly, he opened his mouth and spoke,

"What do you want?" Naruto inwardly slapped himself at the stupid question.

**_'Oh yeah, great stalling. As if it wasn't obvious...' _**Naruto mentally rolled his eyes.

'I'm trying dammit! You know I don't do well under pressure!' Kyuubi sighed.

Kisame let out a loud chuckle. "You really are as dumb as they say, aren't you boy?"

Stuck on what his next move should be, he felt panic begin to rush into his system and, slowly, he started to hyperventilate. His attempt at stalling was failing miserably and he knew he was too weak to fight them off, or do anything for that matter. He shakily took a step back, only to have both Akatsuki members take a step forward with ease.

"St-Stay back..." He mentally cursed at himself for sounding so weak, but he couldn't help it. He was down right terrified, being faced by two of the most powerful S-class criminals in the world with no strength to defend himself.

"Aww how cute. You're trying to defend yourself, yet you're so weak..." A murderous grin slowly rose up on Kisame's face and he grabbed the Samehada, taking a couple of steps towards Naruto, who took another step back as hot tears dripped down from his face.

"No...Just stay away...Just stay away.."

"Sorry boy, but that's not an option. Just make it easier for us and we won't have to hurt you-..." Itachi suddenly shot his hand forward in front of Kisame, whom gave Itachi a quizzical look.

"We're not here to fight Kisame." Kisame opened his mouth to say something when he realized Itachi gave him a murderous glare, daring him to say another word. Kisame shut his mouth and growled, not wanting to anger the younger man. It was at times like this where he hated working with Itachi...

Suddenly, pain began to rip through Naruto's chest, as if a sharp blade was slicing it into pieces followed by a burning sensation, causing Naruto to grip his chest with his free hand as he growled and slightly whimpered in pain. Kisame raised an eyebrow at the blond while Itachi continued to watch silently. Naruto covered his mouth with his other hand, losing the tree he was leaning on for support, when a familiar metallic taste entered it as he began coughing harshly. He gripped his chest tighter, feeling his knees about to give out on him. Blood rapidly began dripping down from his chest and onto his pants, down towards the forest floor.

Kisame's eyebrows furrowed and he frowned.

"Damn, the kid look's terrible... At least it'll be easy to take 'im." The taller of the two began to grin, oblivious to the slight glare the other was giving him. Suddenly, Naruto began throwing up crimson blood and fell to the ground. He wrapped his hands around his throat in an attempt to get air. His air pathways started to clog up due to so much blood coming up. He began wheezing as hot tears rolled down his eyes; his vision blurring into dots and his lungs felt like they were on fire, as if his whole body was being burned from the inside out.

He felt dizzy as the world began to spin around him that he didn't notice the shorter of the two cloaked figures hosting him up. That, or he just didn't care. He was in too much pain to. And if he wasn't so dizzy and looked close enough, it would have looked as if Itachi had a worried look on his face. Naruto's coughing increased tremendously, sending Itachi into slight panic. Itachi softly grabbed Naruto's chin and leveled his dull gaze with his intense one. Naruto's eyes widen in slight shock and panic, but before he could do anything Itachi's sharingan began to swirl and change; the Mangekyou sharingan activating. Naruto's coughing began to cease as his body slowly shut down and his world turned black.

With the strength he had left, he looked at his...savior and gave Itachi a weak smile. "Thank you..." He softly whispered before passing out in his arms.

Itachi stared down at the limp form in his arms in slight confusion from his last words before easily picking him up off of the ground and walking towards his partner. Kisame stared at the scene strangely, not realizing his partner was slowly walking towards him. Could Itachi have actually shown some type of emotion? The thought made Kisame almost laugh, but a deep voice cut through his thoughts. He looked up, just catching what Itachi had said.

"Kisame lets go." He silently nodded and shifted Samehada onto his back as Itachi took long strides towards his partner. Kisame suddenly frowned when he felt his body unable to move. Itachi sighed and calmly looked up into the trees, tightening his grip on the limp form in his arms.

"You're not going anywhere." Shikamaru said smoothly while glaring down at the two. Kiba, Akamaru, Sai and Sakura behind him. Shikamaru scowled in frustration when his shadow possession jutsu started failing him. It wasn't everyday he held two S-class criminals with insane chakra levels.

Itachi noticed Shikamaru's jutsu failing him; the shadows holding him and Kisame fading in and out at times. He smirked and looked up at Shikamaru, holding Naruto close.

"It seems that jutsu is not working as you had planned out." Shikamaru gritted his teeth, feeling an intense headache coming on. Kiba and the rest had finally arrived and landed next to Shikamaru. Kiba's fists clenched and he bared his teeth when he noticed Itachi holding Naruto too close for comfort. Knowing Kiba might charge in there carelessly, he began to speak,

"Look, my jutsu won't hold f-for much longer...Kiba and Akamaru, you go for the big blue guy-"

"What!?" Kiba bit back in protest, making Shikamaru sigh. "Look I don't have time to argue with you! Sakura and Sai will take on Itachi while you and Akamaru take on the big guy. Is that clear?" The other two silently nodded, much to Kiba's displeasure.

"Whatever..." Kiba muttered as he glared at Itachi, who looked back at him with an impassive look. What Kiba wouldn't give to rip out his guts right then and there, but he knew better than to disobey Shikamaru's orders.

The four jumped down and readied themselves for attack when a small clay bird flew out of the sky and landed in front of them. Sakura's eyes widened, recognizing what and where the clay bird had come from.

"Everyone get down!" She shouted just in time before the clay bird exploded. Shikamaru fell out of the tree, breaking a rib and losing his hold on the other two in the process. He hissed in pain and held his side when he fell to the ground and looked at the others to make sure they were all right. Fortunately, it seemed everyone was okay.

"It's about time you got here. I was starting to believe you got lost." Kisame flexed his hand experimentally to confirm that he was officially out of Shikamaru's jutsu. Deidara scoffed and winked at the blue man from above. "Awww, did you miss me Fish-boy?"

Kisame grinned. "Not at all...But I do miss the feeling of being able to shed some blood. I haven't done it for such a long time and Samehada is getting a little hungry..." Deidara grinned.

"We should fix that, yeah?"

Kiba and the others were finally on their feet as Shikamaru leaned against a tree for support before looking at all of them with a serious gaze. "Like I said before, Kiba and Akamaru, you take the big guy. Sai, you take on the blond one up there." He looked at Sakura with a worried look. "Sakura, can you take on Itachi alone?" Sakura scoffed, as if she was being insulted.

"Don't doubt me, Shikamaru." She replied with cockiness filled in her voice.

_'Well that just makes me doubt you even more.' _He thought with a sigh."Alright then, go!" The three nodded and the fight began. Shikamaru slightly regretted his decision once everyone got into their fights. He knew that Kiba and Akamaru together made a good team and with their powers combined, they almost leveled with Kisame and were doing a decent job with fighting him. Sai could soar in the sky with his jutsu and was a clever and quick thinker, so he was a good match-up for Deidara. But Sakura worried him the most. Everyone knew when it came to Sasuke that Sakura was emotionally unstable, so having her face the very man that made _her _Sasuke miserable... What Shikamaru wouldn't give to have his ribs healed and Kakashi here with them. If anyone could fight Itachi, it was Kakashi.

Kiba and Akamaru had Kisame pinned to a corner of a tree and did their fang over fang attack. Dust scattered into the air when Kisame blocked their attack with Samehada, slicing Kiba's stomach and draining a large amount of chakra in the process. He grabbed Kiba by the throat and began to choke him. Kiba grabbed his hands with his clawed ones and dug them into Kisame's skin, only causing the blue man's hold on him to tighten. Akamaru bared his fangs and charged forward, biting into Kisame's arm hard. The sound of many bones breaking was heard and Kisame let out a howl of pain. He instantly let go of Kiba before grabbing Akamaru and slamming him into a large, old tree, which broke in half due to the strong impact. Akamaru yelped loudly and slowly rose up from the ground. His left paw was definitely broken and many splinters made their way into his skin, causing him to bleed, but that didn't stop him from returning to his master's side, ready to fight once more.

Sai took out a scroll and bit into his thumb before he swiped the blank scroll with the crimson colored digit. A large bird came out of the scroll and Sai hopped on top of it, flying into the air where Deidara was. Deidara gave Sai a questioning look before bursting out laughing.

"I'm sorry, but is that suppose to be art, yeah?" Sai ignored the blond and took out another scroll. Three tigers flew out of it and on to Deidara's bird, causing the laughter to stop. The tigers were weighing Deidara's clay bird down. Deidara glared at Sai then reached into his pouch; molding clay into his hand. Five tiny birds flew out of his hand and targeted for Sai's _art. _Sai easily dodged them as they exploded in the sky like fireworks and was prepared for another attack when he noticed the smirk on Deidara's face.

"This is art, yeah!" Sai looked back when the tail of his bird started to light up before a huge explosion ripped through the sky. Sai was knocked unconscious and slowly fell from the sky.

"Dammit!" Shikamaru ignored the pain in his ribs and stood up. He ran towards where Sai was falling and caught him in the nick of time before he hit the ground. Shikamaru grunted in pain and leaned against a tree for support, holding Sai up with the good side of his body. He looked over to his left to see Sakura and Itachi's fight. Surprisingly, she was holding up pretty well against Itachi. Or so he thought.

Sakura felt like she was stuck in an endless cycle. Itachi was dodging all of her attacks, with Naruto still in his arms, and hadn't made any attempt to attack her at all, which irked the pink-haired kunoichi. She growled in frustration before a dark idea sank into her head. She stood in place for a moment before gathering chakra into her fists and charging forward. Itachi sighed and dodged easily. She suddenly disappeared, much to Itachi's surprise. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the area. _'I must have underestimated her __abilities...' _He saw her chakra presence from behind with the sharingan and turned around just in time before he was grazed with her chakra scalpel technique. Her hands glowed a bright green and she aimed for him again, only he started to realize that she wasn't at him anymore, but more so on Naruto.

"I do believe the goal is to save your teammate, not kill him."

Sakura scoffed as she threw another punch at him. "As if I give a damn. We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if it weren't for him. If he's dead, then so many problems would be resolved." She threw a kick at him, which he caught with his hand. She skillfully jumped away before charging at him again.

"For a man that people deem so powerful, you act like a weakling when it comes to fighting. What's the matter? Afraid I'll kick your ass for taking my Sasuke-kun away from me?" Shikamaru inwardly slapped his forehead, even a mere drunken fool would know not to ever tempt Uchiha Itachi.

Sakura slightly regretted her words when Itachi's eyes narrowed at her dangerously; his sharingan blazing into the night. To Sakura's surprise, Itachi stopped moving and stood still, smirking at her as if he was mocking her.

"Weak? You underestimate me Haruno-san...I think it is _you _who is the weak one here." Before she could say anything or make a move, his eyes swirled and twisted into the Mangekyou.

_Sakura found herself __engulfed by darkness. She tried to move her body but it stood still, as if her brain wasn't connecting with her body._

_"Just where am I...?"_

_"Welcome to my world Haruno-san." An outline of Itachi stepped out from the darkness, a deranged smirk plastered on his face, making Sakura shiver in fear._

_As if the __tempeture had dramatically rose, her body started to heat up and soon she felt like she was burning from the inside out. She screamed as a course of burning pain ripped through her system. Out of nowhere, multiple scratches began surfacing onto her skin from her scalp to her toes and she began to bleed rapidly. Pieces of skin started to rip, exposing the muscles, then the muscle tore itself as well, exposing bone. __Her organs began to melt and every bone in her body started to shatter one by one, starting from her legs up. She fell to her knees and screamed in pain. She tried to summon some of her medical __jutsu, but her body wasn't responding the way she wanted it to. Her screams grew louder and she gripped her throat to gain some type of air when her air pathways began to close on her._

_"STOP IT!" She screamed. She knew it was just a genjutsu, but the pain of being skinned alive was unbearable. __As if watching a movie, Itachi sat down on an invisible chair and crossed his legs, watching her with amusement filling in his eyes. "You will suffer this for three days, over and over... Enjoy your torture Haruno-san and I would hope after this experience that you would learn to never underestimate your opponent again or have the audacity to call me weak." Sakura could barely hear him, her screams blocking out any sound he was making._

_Just a minute of this was hell, but three days was another problem. Sakura was going to die before five minutes passed, then again, Itachi would just bring her back to life and do it all over again.._

In reality, it only lasted for a mere second before Sakura dropped to the ground, still alive but unconscious. Itachi was tempted to kick her limp form, but refrained from doing so when he felt Naruto twitch in his arms. He looked over at the blond and realized he was shivering due to the cold night air that his skin was exposed to. Itachi also realized his condition was getting worse by the minute and tightened his hold on him.

"Deidara, Kisame, enough." Deidara and Kisame looked at each other before silently nodding. Itachi gave Shikamaru one last look before all three Akatsuki members disappeared into thin air.

Shikamaru looked from where the Akatsuki once stood with Naruto and sighed. Sakura and Sai were unconscious, Kiba's guts looked like they were about to fall out as he gripped his abdomen while trying to stop the blood flow. The left side of Akamaru's body was completely soaked with blood and he was limping; his left paw completely shattered and broken. Shikamaru groans in pain, holding his injured hip.

"Damn...We failed."

* * *

As soon as the three Akatsuki had arrived at one of their main bases, Itachi quickly fled from the other two and to his room, Naruto still unconscious in his hands. He drew a bath and cleansed Naruto thoroughly, making sure that even the slightest speck of dirt and blood were washed away. When he deemed Naruto's body thoroughly cleansed and dried, he took a special healing cream from the cabinet and placed it on the wounds that remained on Naruto's chest and took white gauze in his hands, carefully wrapping it around Naruto's wounds. He took a bottle of pain killers from out of the cabinet and forced them into Naruto's throat. He was very fortunate that Naruto was a heavy sleeper. Then again, being under the Mangekyou sharingan did take a toll on one's body.

Once he was finished, he exited the bathroom and dressed him with a large, white button-up night shirt that he rarely ever used. He slowly did the buttons to the shirt and couldn't help but admire Naruto's soft, tanned skin. After long days and nights of training and going through many battles, you would think one's skin would be rough and hard, but surprisingly, Naruto had the softest skin Itachi had ever felt as he gently stroked Naruto's cheek, finally buttoning each button to the very top and placing him in the bed and into the soft dark maroon covers.

The taller male sat on the side of the bed and began to observe Naruto's face, which had an eerie, yet, angelic glow to it as the light from the full moon glared upon it. He ever so softly stroked his whiskered cheeks before removing a strand of blond hair out of his face. Naruto had certainly grown since the last time he had seen the blond at the motel when he started his training with Jiraiya. He had to have been about 13 back then when he was but a mere, hyperactive child. But now, he had grown into a beautiful, handsome male. While even having a demon inside of him, he was still so pure and innocent, like a child.

Itachi's gaze shifted from his face towards his knuckles. Curiosity taking its course, Itachi activated his sharingan and almost gasped at the many wounds that Naruto held. He had many battle scars and cuts from previous fights and excessive training and many markings on his chest from what Itachi guessed was from his insanity. Before him and Kisame had arrived to retrieve Naruto, he had sensed a large amount of dark chakra. Since no one else had been in a 10ft range of them, he had assumed it was coming from Naruto. With the way Naruto's condition was, he guessed that this wasn't a rare thing and could tell the blond hurt himself like this every night. It was as if the younger male was trying to rip his own heart out with his own bare hands...The thought made Itachi frown, but he knew the blond could do no such thing and failed every time due to Kyuubi's healing powers.

_'You've become strong Naruto...Stronger than your teammates combined together physically and __emotionally. I'm proud of you...' _The Uchiha unconsciously smiled down at the sleeping figure, admiring the way Naruto's lips slightly parted each time his chest rose up and down, soft snores escaping from his lips from time to time.

_I love you 'Tachi and I hope you'll stay with me forever..._

A familiar voice from the past whispered into his ear like a ghost. The expression of pain and regret flashed through his red eyes and abruptly stood up from the bed. He gave Naruto an apologetic look before turning his head away and towards the door. He walked towards the door and gave one final look towards the blond before stepping out and locking the door with a soft 'click'.

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A pair of eyes shot open as the blond male jolted himself up from his nightmare. He looked around the darkened room frantically as he gripped the dark crimson sheets, not realizing he was slightly shredding the sheets with his clawed hands. His breathing was erratic and his heart rate was beating at the rate of him on a dangerous A-rank or S-Class mission. Once he realized it was only a nightmare and not reality, his body slowly began to relax and he took a few short, calm breaths. Anger and fear were quickly replaced with an overwhelming amount of confusion when his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness of the room. _'__Was I rescued..? No... I would have sensed Shikamaru or the others by now...' _Another thing began to confuse the blond. He realized he wasn't in as much pain as he should be when he usually woke up in the mornings and that he wasn't as dirty as he should have felt.

'Kyuubi, what's going on?! Why am I not in pain and... am I safe? Did Shikamaru and the others save me?' Naruto mentally crossed his fingers.

Kyuubi sadly shook her head.**_'No kit, you were captured by the Akatsuki...' _**Naruto's eyes widened and he felt his heart stop, only for a moment until it started to beat again, but double times faster than normal. He started to hyperventilate when random thoughts began to enter in his head: _Had the Akatsuki killed his friends? Were they safe? Did they even try to rescue him? Did they even care?_ **_'You're going to have another panic attack if you don't calm yourself down kit.' _**Kurama said worriedly. Naruto nodded and shakily exhaled and ran his...clawed hand through his...long hair? Naruto stared at his hands in confusion. When had he grown nails and long hair...

'Just how long have I been out?'

**_'Kit, I don't want you to freak out, but go look at yourself in the bathroom...'_**

'The bathroom?' Naruto saw a closed door in the far right corner. 'Kyuubi...What did you do?' Stroking his long hair again.

Kyuubi sighed. _**'Just look and you' ll see...'**_

Assuming it was the bathroom, he quickly got out of bed and rushed into the room and locked the door shut. He turned on the light switch and softly gasped at his new appearance. **_'Kit...' _**Naruto ignored Kyuubi talking to him as he looked over his new features. His body figure had slightly changed into more of a feminine one, his curvy hips poking out from his...Itachi's night shirt. His hair that was once short and spiky, was now silky and long, reaching down to his knees. He flexed his hands, observing his nails that were officially claws, like Kiba's, and opened his mouth to see that his human teeth changed into dangerous sharp fangs. He ran his tongue over his canines, which were more like daggers now, and whimpered when he accidentally pricked his tongue. The whiskers on his face were more visible than they were already, but the most interesting feature, in Naruto's case, were the color of his eyes. With Kurama's eyes already being red and his blue, combining the two turned his once baby blue eyes into a deep and intense purple-magenta color. When he squinted, he noticed his pupils turn into splits, then back to full, round pupils when he fully opened his eyes again. In conclusion, he looked like a wild animal.

It was as if he was a completely different person. 'Kyuubi...' Kurama inwardly flinched at the calm anger she heard in his voice, but shook it off. She was a thousand year old demon, what did she have to be afraid of a simple human boy's voice for. _**'Yes kit?'**_

'How...did this happen...?'

She sighed.**_ 'It's very complex, but to make it simple for you...Your insanity, plus Itachi's Mangekyou sharingan, took a huge toll on your body. Your body was almost dead and it took up a maximum amount of my chakra to heal you. Even after me healing you, your body was still failing, so I used a second resort, just in case something like this might happen...' _**Kurama took a pause while Naruto calmly and silently waited for her to continue. _**'You see, for years I've stored a certain energy in your body. I started storing it when I started to see you as my own kin and wanted to protect you, knowing the type of enemies you would probably be facing in the future, such as Itachi...'** _Naruto was still slightly confused and tilted his head, trying to process the information Kyuubi was giving him.

'I still don't get it. Why do I look like...this?' He gave himself another full body look in the mirror.

_**'I**** have basically fused us together, hence your eye color being purple. Your chakra color is also purple, but will be more of a **_**_reddish/purple color since your blue, human chakra is of no use anymore.' (1)_**

'Wait...So I'm not... human anymore?' Kuuybi sighed once more.

**_'No, you're still human, but you're more powerful than you were before and have more...animal-like features than you did before. Hen-'_**

'Hence the fangs and claws.' Naruto finished as Kyuubi nodded. _**'You're catching on Kit...'** _Naruto stared at himself in the mirror once more, putting his now clawed hands on the sides of his face, rubbing his thicker whiskers that rested on the sides of his tanned cheeks. **_'If it makes you feel any better, I think you look better this way...' _**Naruto blushed a light shade of red, making Kyuubi chuckle.

'But, I look like a girl! And how am I suppose to manage all this hair!' Kyuubi snickered, making Naruto pout and cross his arms. **_'Speaking of which, don't cut your hair.' _**Naruto raised an eyebrow at Kurama's serious tone.

'Why?'

**_'Because, now that we're fused together more than before, your hair holds a decent amount of my chakra. Hence why your mother had such long hair when she was my container...' (2) _**Naruto gave Kurama a quizzical look. 'Wha...' Kurama sighed. **_'I told you this was complicated. Look, just don't cut it okay? Plus, I think you look much cuter with your mother's long hair than your father's short, spiky hair. I never thought short hair suited you.' _**Naruto smiled as the memory of when Jiraiya had told him about his parents came to mind.

_***Flashback***_

_"Hey Naruto, come here for a second will you?" Jiraiya called from the tree he was sitting on._

_Naruto stopped his rasengan in mid-air and skillfully flipped down on the ground, giving Jiraiya a narrowed look. "What is it old man, can't you see I'm busy training." _

_Jiraiya scoffed._

_"Don't you have any respect for your elders? Just come here boy." Naruto sighed, but didn't say anything more and __obediently walked over to where Jiraiya sat. __"What is it?" Naruto said in a bored tone._

_Jiraiya sighed, ignoring the boy's sudden attitude. He was used to it, Naruto hated being disturbed during the middle of his training. __"You've always wanted to know about your parents, right?" His comment instantly caught Naruto's attention. He ever so slowly nodded his head, looking down at Jiraiya as if he were a teacher about to tell a story to the class._

_"I think it's about time you knew who they were Naruto...Your father was Namikaze Minato, the fourth Hokage and your mother was Uzumaki Kushina." Jiraiya smiled and pulled out a picture. Being an anxious person as he was, Naruto snatched the picture from Jiraiya's hand and looked at it in awe. In the picture stood two people. One was a smiling blond man who had his hands wrapped around a beautiful red-haired woman's waist. She was smiling as well and looked to be five months pregnant, which Naruto assumed was him that was her belly since he had no siblings. They looked very happy and Naruto __almost bursted into tears, wishing he could have been the picture. What he would have given to have actually met his parents for just once._

_"What were they like?" Jiraiya looked at the blond with a quizzical look before smiling._

_"Well, you and your father were complete opposites. He was a calm sport and actually THOUGHT before taking off into action." He rubbed Naruto's golden locks before continuing. "But he had the same dream as you: to become Hokage when he was a genin... Your mother on the other hand was your typically hot-headed beauty. They called her the 'Red Tempest.' She had a quick temper just like you and often got into a lot of fights. How her and Minato ended up together is still a mystery to this day, but I can tell you that the two were madly in love. So in love that, even if you were just a stranger from a mere village or a fool, you could tell the two shared a deep connection..." Jiraiya finished with a sigh and closed his eyes, as if remembering a fond memory._

_Naruto stared at the picture with his hands once more before putting it in his pocket. He__ gave the older man a heart warming smile before bending down to hug him, much to Jiraiya's surprise.. "Arigato Jiraiya-sensei..." Jiraiya felt Naruto's tears drip on his shirt and smiled. He silently hugged the blond teen back._

_***End Of Flashback***_

Naruto's stomach started to growl loudly, sending him out of his thoughts. He rubbed his aching stomach when a certain smell caught his attention. His nose can smell things triple times more than the average human. He got a whiff of a heated, steamy breakfast five doors down the hallway and licked his lips when his stomach began to growl again. He turned off the light and walked out the bathroom.

"Must eat..." He licked his lips again. Not bothering to put on the outfit that laid for him on the bed, he walked out of the room and followed the scent of which the food was coming from.

_**'Careful kit...'**_ Naruto nodded and quickly masked his chakra, sensing six other people in the room that the food's scent was coming from. Two of those people he recognized as Itachi and Kisame. There was one other familiar one but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. His stomach cried out again, making him sigh. With a nervous gulp, he took a deep breath and entered the room.

The conversation that was going on suddenly muted as all heads turned towards the blond entering. Itachi raised an eyebrow at Naruto's new...appearance from the far end of the table. Naruto's new appearance had his hips making the night shirt ride up his thighs, exposing his silky tan skin and if it wasn't hard enough, the innocent blush on his face was not making the situation any better. Itachi had the sudden urge to flip him over and take him right then and there, but shook such thoughts out of his head. For him to think like his shark-like partner irked him.

His eyes narrowed when he realized he wasn't the only one staring and thinking such thoughts, noticing the other Akatsuki members gazing at the blond boy.

Deidara blushed, his exposed eye giving Naruto a quizzical look.

Sasori, surprisingly, couldn't take his eyes off the mysterious blond whom had showed up over night. There was something about Naruto that made the puppet master want to experiment and explore his animalistic features.

Kakazu, whom looked at Naruto with a curious gaze, wondering how the beautiful blond suddenly appeared from out of the blue.

Hidan licked his lips, eyeing Naruto from head to toe with a lustful gaze.

Kisame grinned, admiring the new transformation Naruto had taken.

Itachi's eyes narrowed dangerously, his sharingan blazing and fully activated. He didn't like the attention everyone was giving Naruto and felt a tinge of jealously, something which he rarely ever felt. He knew Kisame wouldn't try anything if he wanted to stay alive and continue to be his partner. Kakazu cared more about money than anything else in the world, so he was out the question. Deidara and Hidan had ways for making people fall for them, but Sasori irked him the most. Knowing Sasori as long as he had, he's only seen that look before Sasori turned someone into a puppet or decided to..._experiment_ on them. He would have to watch out for Sasori.

Oblivious to all the stares he was receiving, he made his way over to the empty seat next to Itachi. He sat down and grabbed a muffin, bringing it to his mouth and eating it with his hands. After a minute of silence, the stares were beginning to irk Naruto, making his eyebrow twitch in annoyance. He took another bit before placing the muffin down in his lap and giving a heavy sigh.

"What are you doing in here, brat?" Naruto narrowed his eyes at Kisame, who inwardly shivered at his intense purple gaze.

"Eating obviously... What? You expect to keep me hostage here and make me starve?" Naruto unconsciously snapped at the blue man.

Kisame's eyebrow twitched. "Watch it, boy. You should learn to respect your elders." He held his arm in pain ; Akamaru's jaws had completely shattered his right arm. Naruto's eyebrow slowly arose in amusement.

"Elders... You make it sound as if you were actually a human; I thought you were a gigantic fish with legs." Hidan and Deidara began laughing out loud at his comment while Kakazu gave a slight chuckle. Sasori gave a small smile, watching Naruto with amusement. Itachi stayed silent as he watched his partner get up from the table, muttering something about stupid brats under his breath before walking out of the room. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, yet kept an impassive look on his face. This is not how he had planned out his morning.

"Oh my JASHIN, this kid is hilarious! Where did you find him?" Hidan said, whiping the tears rolling down his cheeks.

"This is Uzumaki Naruto, also known as the container of Kyuubi no Kitsune; the nine-tailed fox. He will be staying with us until further notice." Itachi replied smoothly.

_'You mean before you kill me...' _Naruto thought bitterly.

Kyuubi sighed. _**'Hold on for a minute kit...If they wanted to kill you and have me extracted out of you, they would have done so already. I have some theories as to why your still alive, but for now, keep your ears and eyes open. Okay kit?'**_ Naruto nodded sadly.

'Alright...'

* * *

**(1) If you don't understand, once Kyuubi found out the Akatsuki was after her and Naruto when he was younger, she started to store a special chakra into him that would benefit her and Naruto in case a situation like Naruto almost dying might happen. As I explained, Naruto is not immortal, he's still human, but he's more powerful than he was before, having the second resort power, plus Kyuubi's power. As for his appearance, just think of Naruko with thicker whiskers and purple-maroon eyes...and claws...and fangs...I hope this helps!**

**(2) It's just my theory on why Kushina had such long hair since I know no one off of Naruto in the anime and/or manga has longer hair than her...except Madara, but let's not get started on him.**

**...**

**Toki: Well that was quite an chappie, huh?**

**Sasuke: Could have been better...**

**Toki: ...**

**~Naruto~ I think it was awesome Toki!**

**Toki: Thank you ****Naruto! And just for that SasUKE, I think next weeks chapter calls for some ItaNaru. Of course, it was already going to have some in it but... Well, thanks to you, it will have more. :)**

**Sasuke: ...*Eyebrow twitches***

**~Naruto~ Aww, I think you made him mad Toki! Don't worry Sasu-chan, you know we're going to be together forever! *Hugs Sasuke while Sasuke blushes***

**Toki: Awww, don't cha just love some NaruSasu?! Until next week, see ya! Reviews much appreciated!**

**Muse: Diddly.**

**Toki:...SHUT UP!**

**...**

**Reply to Reviews**

Narutopokefan:** You might have to get used to those cliffhangers because...I'm the queen of cliffhangers. XD I'm glad you're loving it though and thank you for the review ****dear!**

Sassy618:** That dramatic music though! XD Glad you're sticking around to see what happens next, it means a lot to me. Thanks for the review!**

stefire:** I know Friday seems so far and I'm sorry about that! I would update twice a week, but school and other things always hold me up! I'm actually surprised I'm updating weekly (Mostly thanks to over-persistent friends who love my stories and will die if I don't update). Kudos to my beta who actually suggested the bad omen thing with Tsunade and Sasuke! And yes... you gotta love Kakashi and Sasuke, KakaSasu forever! Thank you for the review!**

darkhuntressix: **Ha ha, you and everyone else. Who doesn't hate Sakura? (Even though I love her and made her a complete bitch). XD Thank you for the review and I absolutely love your Charmander pic! Me and my beta love Charizard! (Although my darn muse is a Squirtle fan...)**

clio1111:** You and me both, I LOVE me some ItaNaru! And about Itachi killing Sakura...he he, maybe. ;) Thank you for the review dear; they always make me smile!**

thor94: **Ha ha, you are so right with Naruto always having bad luck in real life. XD And doesn't everyone want to kill Sakura? Thanks for the review!**

Shadow Kitsune67:** Yeah, there's going to be a LOT of Sakura bashing, but she'll get what's coming to her soon! Glad you like it so far and thanks for the review dear!**

AiMila:** You don't know how hard your review just made everybody over here laugh! Oh my muffins, my stomach. XD And don't worry, Sakura will get what's coming to her soon! Thank you for the review!**

says420: **It makes me happy that you're loving this story dear. Thanks for your review!**

**...**

**Toki Out O3O**


	4. The Plan

**A Crack In The Mask**

* * *

**Toki: Wassup peeps? Naruto's sick so I'm stuck with Mr. Doom and gloom today...**

**Sasuke: Hn...**

**Toki: Huh... Anyways, before we begin I just want to thank everyone for your patience of me updating this story. I try to make my updates weekly, so expect a chapter out every Friday night or Saturday morning (But most likely on Saturday mornings) if you're wondering when and what time I update. Also, I want to thank everyone who reviewed on the last chapter. That was the first fight scene I have ever written and the first time writing about the Akatsuki boys, so thank you and I really appreciate it. Your reviews are what keep me going!**

**Sasuke: Enough with the award ceremony. Just get on with the story.**

**Toki: Yeah, yeah I'm on it. But we can't began without our lovely disclamer and warnings of course!**

**Warnings: Not really any for this chapter except a frantic Tsunade, confused Naruto, shy Deidara and... angry Itachi? **

**Disclaimer: I had Itachi in my house for a quick minute, but then the authorities knocked on my door and started to question me... Luckily, Itachi escaped out the window before the cops found any evidence of him being at my house! So in conclusion, I still (unfortunately) don't own him nor Naruto.**

**~By the way~**

**●Talking- **"ItaNaru"

**●Thinking-**_'ItaNaru'_

**●Flashback- **_***ItaNaru***_

**●Naruto Mentally Talking- **'ItaNaru'

**●Kyuubi/Kurama Talking: _'ItaNaru'_**

**●Kyuubi/Kurama Thinking:_ (ItaNaru)_**

**Toki: Enjoy chapter 4 of A Crack In The Mask!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Plan**

Tsunade was rapidly tapping her fingers on the wooden desk as she anxiously sat in the Hokage office while Shizune was holding Tonton in her arms on the right side of her. Shikamaru and the others were due back six hours ago and Tsunade was getting restless. Shizune tried to comfort her lady by giving her sake and other beverages, but Tsunade refused to drink any type of alcohol until she was told some information about Shikamaru's whereabouts...

Suddenly the doors bursted open and an ANBU member with the mask of a snake entered. They bowed to Tsunade and stood quickly with their head held high.

"Report." Tsunade said in her deepest tone, hoping they had some news on Shikamaru and the others.

"Yes milady! There seems to be an accident by the gate that you should come se-" Before the ANBU finished, Tsunade was all ready up on her feet with Shizune in tow. The ANBU nodded to herself and followed Tsunade and Shizune to the scene.

When Tsunade had stepped in front of the scene she felt her heart stop and gasped. Shizune covered her mouth as she looked at the scene in shock and Tonton whimpered. Everyone looked almost dead. Akamaru's left side of his body was coated in dry blood and he was limping with an unconscious Sai and Sakura on top of his back. Shikamaru had a half dead Kiba on his back and was losing air due to his completely collapsed lung. All the while, having no Naruto in sight.

"Naruto... Akatsuki... Ambush..." Shikamaru managed to get out before fainting on to the ground. Tsunade felt her heart stop and caught him before he hit the dirt ground. Naruto? Akatsuki? Ambush? It could all only lead to one thing...

Tsunade turned to Snake. "Get some of the medical shinobi here and make it quick!" Snake nodded and disappeared into thin air.

A minute later, six medical shinobi, along with Snake, appeared and looked at the scene in shock before grabbing everyone and taking them to the hospital.

Tsunade turned to Snake once more. "I want you to find Jiraiya, Kakashi, Gai and get the rest of Konoha's twelve stat!" Snake nodded and vanished into thin air again. Tsunade immediately rushed towards the hospital and started to work on healing Kiba first since he was the most injured before working on Shikamaru. Shizune worked on Sakura and Sai since all they had were minor cuts and bruises. Hana had arrived when Snake told her the news and took care of Akamaru immediately.

It took a total of five hours to heal everyone and Tsunade felt most of her energy drain right out of her. She sighed when she finally made it back to the Hokage tower and fell down in her seat. As soon as she did so, a couple of loud knocks were at her door.

"Come in." The door opened almost immediately and by order, in came Sasuke, Kakashi, Ino, Tenten, Choji, Gai, Neji, Lee, Hinata and Shino. Sasuke was the first one to speak.

"Why have you summoned us all here and where's Naruto?!" Sasuke said in an almost threatening tone. Tsunade sighed as she felt a headache coming on.

"That's what I've called you all here about. I've been led to believe that Naruto has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki..."

"NANI?!" Everyone in the room chorused before going into an uproar.

"Oh no, Naruto-kun!" Hinata gasped and covered her mouth as she began to cry. Shino's eyes widened from under his glasses before he walked over and held his saddened teammate. Today so happened to be the day that Hinata was finally going to get the courage to ask Naruto out.

Ino, Choji, Kakashi, and Team 10 looked completely shocked by this information.

Sasuke looked the most hurt out of everyone. He started to shake and clenched his fists. When it came to the Akatsuki, it always meant that _he_ was involved. And the fact that his best friend was in the hands of his so-called _brother_ made him feel hurt, angry and a bit depressed. He felt a wave of emotions hit him like a ton of bricks and unconsciously turned on his sharingan. Kakashi looked over at his secret young love and squeezed his shoulder, not liking how things were about to turn.

"Why are we just standing here? We need to get him now. How long has he been gone?" Sasuke questioned, crimson sharingan glaring into watery honey-colored orbs.

"I don't know..."

"You don't know!?" Everyone in the room became silent and stared from Sasuke to Tsunade. Tsunade glared back at the young Uchiha and slammed her hands on the table. The tension in the room could cut a mere knife in half.

"Look, I understand you are concerned just as I am, but I need you all to shut up and listen to me! I am NOT in the mood to deal with you right now Uchiha!"

"Hn." Sasuke turned off his sharingan and crossed his arms,

"Listen everyone, I'm assigning you all on a mission. Get your ANBU gear on and prepare to leave right away, this mission I will be assigning you on will be called "The Naruto Retrieval" mission. Neji, Gai, and Kakashi are in charge so what they say goes. I don't care what you do or how you do it, but just bring that idiot back home. Is that clear?!" Tsunade was on the verge of tears, but had her emotions held at bay as the rest nodded at her.

"Good, now get going, we don't have time to lose."

"Hai!" The group chorused an quickly fled from the office.

As soon as the door closed Tsunade took this chance to bring out a full bottle of sake from the bottom drawer and drink it straight from the bottle. Jiraiya peeked in from the door and took a step back, not wanting Tsunade to notice him just yet. Tsunade sighed. "I see you Jiraiya and you're not in trouble so come in already." Jiraiya gulped before he entered the room proudly with a grin plastered on his face. His grin instantly flattened when he noticed Tsunade's mood and shut the door, walking up to the blond woman's desk. Whenever Tsunade was like this, something had gone to hell.

"What's this all about Tsunade? I know you wouldn't just send ANBU for me and it not be an emergency." Tsunade put down the bottle of sake and stared at Jiraiya with a narrowed look. She bit her bottom lip, almost regretting on telling Jiraiya what had happened, but the man needed to know. Naruto was as close to him as he was to her.

"Jiraiya sit down..." Jiraiya obediently did so and waited for the blond woman to speak. She mumbled a few words before looking down at her hands and away from her comrades face. She couldn't bare to see the look on his face when she told him the news. "Look Jiraiya... There's no easy way to say this so I'll get straight to the point. Naruto has been captu-"

"Captured by the Akatsuki." Jiraiya surprisingly finished for her. Tsunade dumbly nodded her head and stared at the man.

"But... How did you know?"

"I knew when the knuckle-head didn't come after me and attack me with a huge bear hug at our usual spot three hours ago and when I was informed of what happened by the ANBU, she said everyone's name was at the hospital but Naruto's. And the look on your face says it all." Tsunade scowled and picked up her sake, taking another sip from it before facing Jiraiya again.

"I've sent Gai, Kakashi and the rest of Konoha's twelve to start searching for him, although I doubt they'll get to him in time..." Tsunade bit her bottom lip and shut her eyes tightly when tears began to drop out of them. Jiraiya sighed and stood up to make his way towards the saddened blond woman. He wiped her tears away and rubbed circles into her back when she began to hysterically cry. She loved Naruto like a son;just like her brother, and for him to be taken right of her life just like that... Tsunade couldn't bare to lose anyone else close to her.

"Don't worry Tsunade, we'll find him. Naruto's a strong kid. He won't let the Akatsuki kill him so easily." Jiraiya smiled at her, trying to lighten the mood. She gave her own small smile and sniffed as she wiped her tears away, smudging make-up all over her face.

"I know... I just hope he stays strong enough in time for everyone to find him..."

* * *

_A tall boy in an ANBU outfit with the mask of the raven suddenly appeared in front of a cave that was hidden behind a waterfall. Raven, other than Wolf, were __assigned to guard and watch Naruto throughout the day. Wolf would watch over Naruto throughout the day while Raven would watch at night. It just so happens that today Naruto HADN'T played a prank on the villagers, but was simply walking home and got a beating from ruthless villagers full of anger and hatred. The blond boy had managed to escape but when Wolf reported what had happened to the Hokage, the Third sent a search party. No one seemed to have luck on finding him that day, but Raven knew Naruto's chakra signature like the back of his hand and immediately found the small blond as soon as his ANBU gear was set and ready to go._

_Naruto had his back turned towards the waterfall as tears poured out of his eyes non-stop. He didn't understand why everyone hated him so much and why he got hated looks and beaten almost everyday of his life. He had done nothing to the villagers to deserve this. When the problems at the village would become too much for him, he would run into the forest and hide in a cave behind the waterfalls. It was always quite and peaceful and no one ever found him there._

_'Naruto.' Naruto's ear's perked up at the sound and instantly turned around to see Raven slowly walking towards him. Naruto gulped and wiped his tears and his nose before standing up. Raven now stood in front of him and cupped the little boy's cheeks. Raven wiped his tears and pulled him in for a tight hug. Naruto quickly returned the hug and snuggled into Raven's chest. Out of all his ANBU guardian protecters, Raven was always his favorite and he developed a small crush on him._

_Naruto lifted his head up and sniffed. 'I-I'm sorry I ran away...I was just...I __cou-couldn't-...' Raven held the crying boy tighter._

_'I understand Naruto-kun. It's alright...' Raven continued holding the crying boy in his arms and listened to him crying for the rest of the night until he fell asleep in his arms. He brushed a stray hair away from Naruto's face and sighed, picking the boy up bridal style in his arms and walking out the cave. He held the blond tight and gracefully flew into the trees. The harsh nighttime wind swirled around them and Raven held Naruto tighter when he felt the boy shiver in his arms._

___'Th-Thank you...' _Naruto snuggled into him even more and smiled before falling asleep again.

_..._

Purple-maroon eyes slowly opened, long blond eyelashes cascading over them. With small yawn, Naruto slowly sat up from the bed and stretched very cat-like. He turned towards the window and sighed. The sky was a orange-purple color, indicating that night time was approaching. He looked down at his clawed hands and suddenly the past events of today and yesterday played in his mind. It almost felt like a dream, as if none of this was real.

He tried to move out of the bed, which was a mistake when he felt a splitting headache come on and his body felt like he was covered in cement. He couldn't move a single muscle and groaned in pain, laying back down in bed and staring up at the ceiling. Itachi had apparently placed chakra bonds in his room and on Naruto, so when Naruto tried to break them earlier it took a huge toll on his body, which lead to the nap he had just awoken from a minute ago. And although he failed with breaking the chakra bonds, he was able to find some interesting things in Itachi's room and luckily found two kunai hidden under his pillow.

_**'How are you feeling kit...?'** _Naruto didn't respond. He still had to learn how to work with his new body and how to control his un-human like chakra. It was more difficult than when he tried to learn the rasengan, combined with controlling Kyuubi from taking over his body when he was younger.

'Why don't they just kill me already...' Naruto bitterly thought. As he started up at the ceiling, confusion everywhere. Why had the Akatsuki not killed him yet? Why was he just laying in Itachi's room like he lived there? Were his friends safe? Did anyone care for him at all? Were they even worried? Had they made it back to the village and sent out a new search team for him? How long was he to stay alive? And where was Itachi? Naruto abruptly sat up and shook his head at his last thought. Why would he be worried about where the elder Uchiha had fled off too? A loud, yet soft, knock was heard at the door, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts.

"Come in." The door opened and a blond man with a tray of food and a smile on his face stood in the doorway. "I thought you might like some food since you haven't eaten since breakfast...yeah." The blond man hesitantly looked around the room, not setting a foot in it as Naruto raised an eyebrow at the blond man's peculiar behavior. It was as if he was afraid of setting a foot in Itachi's room or to go anywhere near him, as if he were a diseases...

"You can come in. I don't bite..." Naruto slowly scratched the back of his head and playfully grinned, exposing his fangs. **_'_**

**_C_**_**areful kit, this is your enemy...'**_ Kyuubi softly reminded him.

The blond man felt more at ease and smiled before entering the room. He gave Naruto his tray, which contained chicken and rice with a glass of water, and sat silently on the bed. Naruto stared at the tray and sniffed it, making sure it wasn't poisoned or drugged. Deidara silently laughed, causing Naruto's to look at him quizzically.

"It's not poisoned...yeah." Naruto blinked at Deidara and sniffed the food once more. He nodded in approval when he smelled no drugs and began to eat, ignoring the stare Deidara was giving him as he did so. The two hadn't spoken for more than five minutes and the silence was making Naurto very uncomfortable, so he decided to start up a conversation with the blond man.

"I'm Naruto, what's your name?" Small, but a good start for a conversation of getting to know someone. Deidara was startled by the sudden voice and blinked before giving Naruto a small smile.

"Deidara...yeah." Naruto set his tray to the side and sat in a more comfortable position, ignoring the pain that throbbed in his body, before continuing the conversation.

"Do you say yeah after every sentence?" Deidara stuck out his tongue and played with his ponytail. Naruto couldn't help but stare at the mouths on his hand in awe.

"It's a habit...yeah." Naruto nodded. He looked down at his clawed feet and swung them back and fourth as they dangled on the edge of the bed. Deidara observed Naruto once more. His appearance had changed drastically since the first time they meet when he and Sasori had attacked the sand village. This moment would be the perfect time to ask about it. "Naruto...Do you mind me asking about your...new appearance...yeah?" Naruto slowly shook his head.

"It's basically a second resort that has been stored in my body in case I was on the verge of dying...Kinda like last night. Although I didn't think it would make me look like a frickin' girl!" Deidara nodded and chuckled at the pout Naruto displayed. The boy was pretty cute when he was angry.

"Just like me...yeah." Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean 'just like you'?" Deidara gave another small smile before looking up at the ceiling and closing his eyes.

"You see, since I was younger i've always had a...feminine look to me, un. People would make fun of me for it, which is also, believe it or not, why I have such a short temper. It only got worse when I joined the Akatsuki. Being in a house full of men with one feminine looking guy, which is me obviously, it sometimes get's too much to handle, un. But hey, you get use to it...yeah." **(1)** Deidara looked back down at Naruto with a grin, which Naruto returned with a sweet smile. It seemed like someone in the house genuinely wanted to be nice and honest with him and wasn't involved in whatever trap they were trying to place him in.

A loud cough was heard from the front of the room, startling both blond ninja. They slowly turned their heads to see an impassive Uchiha standing in front of the door way and if you looked close enough, his eye brow was slightly twitching. An awkward tension surrounded them, making Deidara slightly cough. The glare Itachi was giving him was enough to make a single grown man piss his pants. He got up from the bed and smiled at Naruto.

"It was nice meeting you Naruto. I hope we get to talk more in the near future...yeah." Naruto nodded.

"I'm sure we will, believe it." Deidara nodded his head and speed walk out of the room as quick as he could, ignoring Itachi's death gaze on him. Itachi watched Deidara's retreating figure for a mere second before turning back to Naruto and slamming the door shut.

"Who said it was alright for you to freely talk to the other members of the Akatsuki." Itachi said as more of a fact than a question. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the sudden question and inwardly flinched at the intense black gaze Itachi was inflicting on him.

"No one said it wasn't allowed...And who are you to tell me who I can and can't talk too, my mother?" Naruto unconsciously snapped at the older man. Itachi's eyebrow inwardly twitched, his face holding no emotion. His patience was already running on low and Naruto's attitude wasn't helping at the moment. Pain had suddenly assigned a simple mission for him and Kisame tonight that could have easily been done by Sasori and Deidara. Having Naruto alone with the other Akatsuki members put him on edge. Who knows what they would do to Naruto while he was gone.

"You are not to leave this room or talk to anyone unless I say so, is that clear Naruto." Naruto looked at Itachi with a puzzled expression. Was this guy serious? First he kidnapped him only for him to meet his death soon, and then he says he can't talk to anyone or leave the room without his permission. What was he a slave?

Naruto stood up from the bed and clenched his fists. "Like I said before, who are you to tell me who I can and can't talk to? If I want to talk to someone who actually enjoys my company or go out to get some food I will! I will not be ordered around by the likes of you!" He pointed at Itachi and scowled at the older man. Itachi sighed and put a ran a hand through his hair, a habit he did to calm himself down when he felt really stressed.

"Naruto-kun, your being very difficu-" Itachi stopped in mid sentence when a kunai suddenly whizz end passed him and cut his right cheek. His eyes slightly widened and looked over at a fuming Naruto. _'Where did he get that...?' _Itachi thought before noticing that the blond boy had rummaged through his stuff. He mentally smirked at Naruto and wiped the blood off his cheek with his thumb. He grabbed the kunai from the wall and twirled it around with a mere finger before grasping it and glaring at Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, I do not wish to play childish games with you tonight-" Naruto cut him off again by throwing another kunai, which Itachi gracefully dodged.

"Then don't! Why don't you just piss of and kill me already? Don't leave me to die; wondering why you haven't killed me like you have with Sasuke!" Naruto slightly regretted his words when Itachi's eyes turned red; sharingan activated.

Itachi felt himself lose the little patience he had at that moment; his one button had been pushed. He was suddenly next to Naruto and slammed him against the wall as he began to choke him, his sharingan burning holes in Naruto's skin. Naruto closed his eyes tightly and struggled with Itachi's strong grip. He felt his airways slowly closing, trying to pry Itachi's hands off of his neck as hot tears leaked from his eyes due to the lack of air.

_** '**_**_Kit...!' _**Kyuubi began to panic and sent her powerful chakra into Naruto's vein. Naruto's eyes shot open, pupils turning into splits, as his purple-maroon eyes began to glow vividly into the moon light. He grasped Itachi's hands and dug his nails into them, causing Itachi to hiss as blood drizzled down his hands and onto the floor. With his in-human strength, Naruto grasped Itachi's rob and threw him into the wall. The impact was so strong, a hole was made into the wall as dust scattered all over the room. Itachi groaned in pain and stood up when his door flew open, Kisame, Deidara and the other members peaking in to see what was happening. Deidara stared from a terrifying Naruto to a pissed off Uchiha and sighed. _'He just had to piss Naruto off more than he already was...yeah.'_

"Kisame, we're leaving." Itachi dusted himself as if nothing happened and walked towards the door, the other Akatsuki members instantly moving out the way as if Itachi was king. Itachi looked back at Naruto with a threatening glare, sharingan activated again. "Do not leave this room under any circumstances until I get back." Naruto didn't even respond nor hear Itachi's words. He was too busy trying to figure out what had just happened and where that power had came from. He felt like a whole new person and more powerful than when he was in Kyuubi's state.

Itachi's eyebrow visibly twitched but he didn't say anything more and walked out the door, Kisame following behind him silently. Kakazu suddenly entered the hallway and almost had a heart attack at the sight of the hole in the wall. His fists clenched as he felt his whole entire face grow red.

"Who put a HOLE in the damn WALL?!"

* * *

**1) It's the only conclusion that I could come up with as to why Deidara has such a bad temper. I mean, no one is just randomly born with a bad temper. Everyone has a point in their lives where they just snap and the only reason I can think of for Deidara being such a hot head is because of people mocking his art AND I can tell he struggled in his childhood/teenage life because of his ****feminine looks. Kinda makes you feel sorry for the guy :(**

**...**

**Toki: Ha ha, I just wanted to have a funny lil' ending since this story is so... full of suspense and drama and hasn't had a lot of humor, haha... Anyways, excuse me if this chappie was boring, but I needed to get the plot rolling! And I'm also sorry if I have made anyone seem out of character. I absolutely HATE it when my favorite characters or when anyone in general is the least bit out of character, so if you notice anyone too OOC or any mistakes at that, feel free to let me know. I love when people give me criticusm!**

**Sasuke: You're such a liar...**

**Toki: How am I a liar?!**

**Sasuke: Because when you get any type of critistm you hate it and then you get too emotional and start to act like a pregnant woman.**

**Toki: I do NOT!**

**Sasuke: I beg to differ. You're acting like it now.**

**Toki:... You know what, why don't you just go hop in a ditch?!**

**Sasuke: I can't because you need me for your intros and outros, plus I'm one of the main characters in the story. *Smirks and dogdes a chair***

**Toki: You're the reason I have grey hairs! Ugh... please kindly review and I'll see you guys next week... I really need a coffee and some ice cream. Review, review, review!**

**...**

**Reply to reviews:**

**Rosebunse: **Well I'm not going to make anything TOO non-canon, so you won't have to worry about the plot still changing from the original one in Naruto. I won't go crazy, I promise!

**Clio1111: **Don't worry, there's still more Sakura bashing to come! Thank you for the review, you always manage to make me laugh!

**darkhuntressxir: **Haha, thank you for the review! I thought my idea of dark Naruto was going to be crazy!

**Darklife21:** THANK YOU! That was the first fight scene I have ever written for a story and I didn't know if I did too much or too little, but I'm glad to know I made it just right and I'm glad you like my version of Dark Naruto. I didn't want to make him a full demon, yet not fully human, so he's just half and half! Thank you for the review!

**wolfmoon30:** No, yes, and anything that involves Itachi will make Sasuke snap. XD Thank you for the review!

**Bloodred 321:** Thank you and thanks for the review!

**thor94: **Thank you and Naruto is still a male, but he's a very feminine looking male like Deidara! And as for Sakura getting killed... We shall see, but do know that she WILL suffer the consequences for trying to harm Naruto!

**Lovely Fox-Kit:** Don't die! I post chapters every Friday night or Saturday morning, so you don't have to wory about me disappearing for a while then coming back. I update weekly! And if I have time I will read your story, thank you for the review!

**saya420:** I'm glad you like it and stick around, because the story is just about to get good! Thank you for the review!

**janieceal: **I update every Friday night or Saturday morning. Thank you for the review!

**bunnyguest: **The new update is now XD

**AiMila: **We all have problems with the internet, but I'm glad you still reviewed. Hope you continue to read this story and stick around!

**Nishinoyakuun: **Your review made me smile and stick around, cause things are about to turn good!

**...**

**Toki Out O3O**


	5. The Tension

**A Crack In The Mask**

* * *

**Toki: Well kids, schools out so you know what that means...**

**~Naruto/Toki~ MORE UPDATES! *Throws confetii everywhere***

**Sasuke: Kill me now...*Wipes confetii off his shoulder***

**Toki: You know what I'm just gonna be flat out honest here. I got out of school two weeks ago and if it wasn't for my little snuggle bear telling me to get my lazy ass up and write over here you wouldn't have gotten your update for this story -if it's still even good- so thank him for that. Also, I had to go through seeing some good friends graduate at their graduation, plus my snuggle bear, and all this other summer crap...But I'm back again and ready to update twice as fast for you guys, so here you go!**

**Warnings: Um...a little OCC Itachi but that's about it and don't worry you'll get your frickin' smut soon, just hold your horses mates cause I know you all want it as much as my beta and best friend do.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, Ion' own Naruto, but I damn sure am sending a letter to Kishi about Itachi. I must have that man hunk of an Uchiha at all cost!**

**Sasuke: Tch, he's not all that great.**

**Toki: Shut your jealous ass up SASSuke. *Sasuke and me go into a glaring contest***

**~Naruto~ U-Uh...enjoy the story and the 5th chapter of 'A Crack In the Mask'...Please don't kill him Toki, I wanna make love to him later!**

**Sasuke: What the hell Naruto?!**

**Toki: oh alright, enjoy!**

**~By the way~**

**●Talking- **"ItaNaru"

**●Thinking-**_'ItaNaru'_

**●Flashback- **_***ItaNaru***_

**●Naruto Mentally Talking- **'ItaNaru'

**●Kyuubi/Kurama Talking: _'ItaNaru'_**

**●Kyuubi/Kurama Thinking:_ (ItaNau)_**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Tension**

For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Naruto sighed.

Itachi and Kisame have been gone since yesterday night and Naruto was board out of his mind. It's not that he was afraid of stepping out of the room and disobeying Itachi. He didn't even know a single thing about the guy except what he did to his clan and how much of a mess he turned Sasuke into. But the way Itachi was acting when he didn't want him to leave the room caused him to consider Itachi's warning, thus he has stayed in Itachi's bedroom all day with the exception of going out into the hallway and getting lunch from Deidara. Plus, Itachi's chakra bonds on his room were twice as strong as before.

The whole in the wall he made the other night was immediately fixed by Kakuzu. Apparently, the guy hated when things were broken and waisting money because the whole time he was fixing the wall, Naruto kept hearing him mumbling things about it. He carried on a small and decent conversation with the elder man and apologized for his actions by helping him out and fixing the wall. To Naruto, Kakuzu seemed like a nice guy to speak with until it came to money. The guy seemed greedy as all get out.

Once the wall was fixed and Naruto finished lunch, he started to meditate and try to work on learning how to harness his new powers, but being the in,patient person he was he immediately got board and decided to take a nap.

Now at seven O'clock that evening, Naruto had awoke to be sore, board and hungry. He needed some type of action and seemed like Deidara wasn't coming to give him food anytime soon so he was gonna take things into his own hands. He was capable of doing things on his own and he knew where the kitchen was so why not go and get food himself?

With the way Itachi and the others members he had meet so far were treating him he felt like a prisoner, with the exception of Deidara. The other blond made him feel equal and Naruto felt he could trust him. He sat up from the bed and stretched, letting his feet slightly dangle on the edge.

_**'Kit, where are you going?' **_

"To get food obviously. I'm starving and I don't think Deidara's coming anytime soon." Naruto stood up from the comfortable bed and started heading towards the door. He reached for the doorknob and slowly turned it only to feel a shock of electricity hit him like a ton of bricks. He retracted his hand and held it close to his chest, blowing on it furiously since it started to burn badly for some reason.

'Damn Itachi and his strong chakra bonds! He must have made them twice as strong when I left. Now it actually hurts to touch the door knob...It's like I'm his fucking slave or something!' Kyuubi chuckled and laid her head on her paws.

_**'Maybe he should get you a collar?' **_Naruto glared at the amusement in her voice and continued to blow on his hand. Kyuubi rolled her eyes and sighed.

**_'Look kit, I don't think that's his intention to make you feel like a salve. I think he only wants to protect and keep you safe and I hate to say it, but you should show a bit more courtesy towards the man...' _**Naruto stood still as if time had stopped and his purple-maroon eyes slightly widened. Each word sunk into Naruto's brain very slowly as he processed the sentences and words Kurama had just said to him.

Protect?...Safe?...Courtesy?

'So your asking me to be all nice and cuddly to the guy who kidnapped me to my awaiting death...I think your getting a little loopy up in the head Kurama.' Kurama scoffed at the insult.

_'**Listen brat! Remember when you were knocked out the first night you got here and you woke up the next morning to find yourself healthy and clean? Well partially I'm the one who healed you, but Itachi is the one who took care of you and your wounds. If he didn't care he would have left you the way you were and left you in a cellar to rot, not in his bed room...'** _Naruto blinked at Kurama's words and sighed.

'Well when you put it like that..I guess I should be more nice to him and- wait a second.' A certain thought ran through Naruto's mind and made him shiver. 'If he took care of me and I was clean the next day then that means he bathed me right? Which also means that if he had to bath me...OH MY GOD, UCHIHA ITACHI SAW ME NAKED!?' Naruto felt his face and ears heat up and immediately covered his face with his hands. He slide down against the door and groaned. He hadn't felt more embarrassed in his life. Kyuubi snickered at her kit's reaction to the information he just processed and smiled at him.

**_'I wouldn't make such a big deal kit. It's not like you have an ugly body...Matter of fact with the way your body is now I would say your more gorgeous than most of the female generation in this world...' _**Naruto blushed even more and heavily groaned,

'I know I don't have and ugly body but still, he saw me naked and no one has ever seen me naked before!' Naruto gulped and ran a hand through his golden locks before he looked out the window. He stood up and whipped away the curtains, admiring the orange and gold evening scenery outside. He thought about jumping out the window and escaping a couple of times but he wasn't stupid. He would just get caught again._  
_

He growled in frustration and plopped down on the bed. "Itachi you better hurry back so I can beat your ass you damn bastard..." Naruto blushed and groaned in his hands once more. This was something that he was going to live with for the rest of his life.

* * *

Itachi's eyebrow visibly twitched this time as he and Kisame silently walked into the forest towards their destination. For the pass day and a half Itachi's thought's have been nothing but strictly about Naruto. With the chakra bonds he set up in his room -even when he was far away like he was now- he could tell when and if Naruto was trying to escape or not. He inwardly sighed when he felt Naruto trying to escape for what felt like the tenth time this evening and it irked the Uchiha of how persistent Naruto was to leave his room. What was so great out there anyway? Surely not the other Akatsuki members, except maybe Hidan when he was drunk and Deidara when he was nice.

Then again, he did notice the way Deidara sat closely to Naruto the other night and couldn't help but notice how happy Naruto seemed to have some company. But wasn't his company enough? On the other hand, Itachi realized he hadn't really interacted with Naruto since he brought him to the hide out. The only time when he truly was with the blond was the other night when he chocked him...Dammit! Itachi knew he had screwed up then and there. He cursed himself for having such a short temper because Naruto probably hated him! And as to why Itachi felt slightly guilty about attacking the innocent blond was beyond him. He thought about getting the Naruto a gift and apologizing before the thought was quickly shoved aside.

He was freaking Uchiha Itachi for kami's sake! Uchiha's don't apologize and they certainly don't get emotional and let out their feelings.

While Itachi was having a mental battle with himself, looking impassive on the outside as he walked, Kisame could tell something was up with his partner. Out of all the years of working with Itachi, Kisame could say he knew the Uchiha quite well and could tell when his partner was feeling distressed. Now was one of those times and he had a pretty good idea of why his partner seemed so strained.

"Is it the boy?" Kisame asked rather loudly, snapping the Uchiha out of his thoughts.

"Hn?" Kisame smirked when he immediately got the Uchiha's attention and continued.

"The boy. I asked if it's the boy that's troubling you. You've been more quite than usual today is why I asked."

"Hn..." Itachi's silent response was all Kisame needed to know that that was the problem and sighed heavily before glancing at his younger partner.

"Why do you care so much about the brat anyway? He's just another worthless kid. Unless...You knew him personally back when you still lived in your village, didn't you?" Itachi choose not to respond to his partner's comment and kept walking forward. Kisame scoffed at Itachi's response but it was of him to do something like that. Itachi usually found ways to avoid Kisame's questions, mostly throughout silence.

"The town is up ahead. I intend to make this mission quick, Kisame." Itachi didn't say another word and quickened his paste.

"Yeah I get it. I won't shed _too_ much blood...By the way, what was all that mess back at the Hideout? The boy looked ready to pounce and tear into you." Itachi sighed at the memory and kept his quick pace.

"He was just being irrational when I told him to not leave the room." The shark-like man raised an eyebrow.

"And why can't he leave the room? It's not like he can escape or anything." Itachi scoffed at his teammates foolish comment and turned his head slightly to look at him.

"Kisame...How would you feel if you were in a house -skinny and petite with hips- with full grown hormonal men?" Kisame laughed loudly at the image and scratched the back of his head with his good arm.

"Well when you put it like that I guess I would lock the boy up to but then again, why are you so concerned for him? It's not like he likes you-unless your planning to get a collar and make him your pet?" Kisame grinned. "Remember Miko-"

"Enough Kisame." Itachi immediately cut him off with an intense red glare. Kisame grinned and put his one good arm up in a surrender gesture before passing the now angered Uchiha.

"Alright, alright I get it-I'll shut up, but I was just asking a simple question."

"Hn." The two continued to walk in silence for the rest of the way.

* * *

"We'll stop here." Neji and the rest of the gang stopped at a large clearing in a forest to catch their breath. The ten have been traveling non stop all day and so far haven't made any good progress. It was evening now and everyone felt stressed and tired about the whole situation, Sasuke being the most upset.

He let out a frustrated scowl and gave Neji a dark glare. He on the other hand wasn't tired like everyone else since his stamina was off the charts, thanks to intense training with Orochimaru, he didn't feel the slightest bit tired.

"What are we all standing around here for? We have to keep moving." Neji gave him a glare as well and soon the two found themselves in an intense glaring contest. Kakashi sighed and put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Look, I know you wanna find Naruto badly Sasuke, but so do the rest of us...But look at everyone for a moment Sasuke, not everyone has endless stamina like you." Sasuke scowled and looked at everyone before sighing and slightly leaning into Kakashi's touch.

"Tch. Whatever." Neji took a deep breath and sighed.

"Kakashi," Neji called out, gaining the attention of the copy ninja and Sasuke. "I remember when we went to go and rescue Gaara and that it took three days for them to extract his demon. So we still have three days left if they havn't started extracting the demon out of Naruto...Right Kakashi?" Kakashi nodded.

"That's exactly right Neji."

The brunet coughed and spoke up. "Listen everyone, I have a plan." Everyone gave Neji their full attention and circled around him. "I have fabricated a plan that might work if we all cooperate so listen good. We'll split up into three teams: One consisting of myself, Tenten and Lee. The other team will be Hinata, Shino and Gai while the other will be Ino, Choji, Sasuke and Kakashi himself. There's a city just up ahead that we're about to approach. We'll pick a meeting spot once we get there then split up, is that clear?"

"Hai." Everyone chorused, minus Sasuke.

"That's the team leader sprit Neji! The kind of youthful spirt we need for this type of mission!" Gai put his thumbs up and grinned, his teeth sparkling. Lee followed his pose while Tenten groaned.

"Even on this type of mission they're still so enthusiastic." Ino chuckled and out a hand on the poor girls shoulder.

"Good. Then we'll rest for ten minutes and continue into the city." Neji glanced at Sasuke who nodded at him in approval and slightly smiled before walking away and going to check up on Hinata.

Sasuke crossed his arms and walked a little ways from the group, Kakashi following behind him. He stopped at the end of ear-shot distance and turned around to face Kakashi. He grabbed one of Kakashi's hands and looked up at him with a soft look that he would only give Kakashi.

"Honestly Kakashi, do we need to stay the rest of the group? They'll only slow us down." Kakashi sighed and gently rubbed the top of his young love's hand.

"Sasuke, you already know the answer to that question. And besides, Choji is extra strength for us while Ino can use her mind skills to track information down. Plus, if push comes to shove we have the girls to help us out the get information." Sasuke scoffed and whipped his hand away from Kakashi's. Kakashi looked hurt for a moment before he found himself in a tight embrace.

"Whatever...Just know we're coming for you dobe and you better not get yourself hurt by my brother or I'll make sure you'll never hear the end of it." Sasuke mumbled in Kakashi's chest. Kakashi smiled and gently rubbed Sasuke's back.

"Don't worry Sasuke, we'll find him. Now let's get back to the others?" Sasuke let put a low groan in protest but let go and started to walk back, but not before letting Kakashi slip a small comforting peck on his cheek. Even at times like this, Sasuke still loved Kakashi and would let the man slip a kiss or two in.

"We're coming dobe."

* * *

**Toki: Can't you just feel the sexual tension building up between these two. It could cut a freckin' knife!**

**~Naruto~ Already the 5th chappie and there's sexual tension between me and Itachi huh? So does that mean we 're gonna have sex soon?**

**Sasuke: What the hell Naruto?!**

**Toki: Well aren't you as blunt as ever. Although I think having full-blown sex between you two is too soon to have. There will be some sexual acts within these next chappies, but I'm not saying anything else about it. *Makes a zipper motion near my lip***

**Sasuke: NANI!? I refuse this!**

**Toki: Well get use to it bub cause this is an ItaNaru Fic and your coming along with me for the ride because I love torturing you and your cocky ass. Now Naruto, would be a dear and be so kind as to take your man and lock him up in a room and have sweaty man sex with him while I end this chapter?**

**Sasuke: NANI?!**

**~Naruto~ Sure Toki! See you guys later! * Slings Sasuke over his shoulder and poofs out the room***

**Toki: Anyways, sorry for the short chappie but I promise that the next chapter will be coming out in a couple of days so hold your horses. Honestly I would reply to reviews this time and I'm not being lazy-but my snuggle bear wants to take me out to eat and he won't take no for an answer, so see you guys next week. And let's try for 20+ reviews this time since this story has more than 60+ faves and more than 100+ followers please?! Much love you guys!**

**Toki Out O3O**


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